Two days learning to eat and unhattched eggs

[Saraadams79]

How long do we leave unhatched under the hen? She has hattched one chic and he seems to be ok but the other eggs are on day 23 and no signs and no noises from now either

I read that the chic she has will last for a few days with out food and water but when will thd little fellow eat? Will the hen show him what to do?

And one last question if we wanted to put more eggs under thd already sitting hen will she continue to sit for another 21 days?

Cheers

 

[Ridgerunner]

Welcome to the forum! Glad you joined us!

I let the broody decide when she wants to bring her chicks off the nest, but I don’t know how you have her. Does she have enough room to come off the nest if she wants to?

I’ve had broodies bring their chicks off the nest as early as 18 hours after the first one hatched. I’ve had others wait for more than two days. Not all eggs hatch at the same time.

Broodies do all this by instinct. It’s amazing how well they normally do. I think they can hear the unhatched chicks in the eggs so they wait as long as they can before they bring the chicks off the nest if they have viable unhatched eggs ready to hatch. On rare occasions a hen will get it wrong, but almost always the hen will bring the hatched chicks off the nest when it is time for them to eat and drink and abandon the unhatched eggs.

A chick can go three days or more without food or drink because one of the last things they do before hatch is to absorb the egg yolk. That’s why they can be mailed. The hen will show her chicks how to eat and drink.

There is no telling how long a hen will sit on unhatched eggs until some hatch, but once they decide to bring the chicks off the nest the hen has totally abandoned the eggs. She is too busy feeding and taking care of her chicks to worry about eggs.