What to do for just hatched egg

[Frazzled chicken tender]

My little d'uccle just hatched one egg. She and the baby are in a nesting box which is roughly 4 feet up in the air. I'm worried the baby will fall out. The mother is stillsitting on unhatched eggs, with the baby behind her. Should i put a small box beneath the nesting box in case the baby falls out? Do I bring some crumble and water in bowls and leave them in the box? Thank you for any advice!

 

[nuthatched]

Can you cover the opening a bit so it doesn't fall out?
chicks can go a day or two without food but yes, you can set shallow bowl with marbles of water and food for them.

 

[Frazzled chicken tender]

I dont have curtains up on it but i can try to find piece of cardboard or maybe some plywood and cover the opening partly. I'll bring some food and water down. Thank you for responding!

 

[Frazzled chicken tender]

Can you cover the opening a bit so it doesn't fall out?
chicks can go a day or two without food but yes, you can set shallow bowl with marbles of water and food for them.

Thank you, and also I forgot to add its her first baby (and first for us) so I'm not sure if she knows what to do.

 

[Ridgerunner]

The only time I ever had a chick fall out of a nest was when the nest was small in comparison to the hen. Sometimes the first chicks to hatch climb up on Mama's back while they are waiting on the later ones to hatch. That hen was so close to the edge of the nest that when the chick fell off it missed the nest and fell to the floor, four feet below. Four different times I picked a chick up off of the floor and put it back in the nest with Mama, probably the same chick each time. My other nests are larger and those chicks do not fall out. I don't know what your nest looks like or how that d'uccle fits but I probably would not worry.

That chick fell four feet four different times and was not hurt. My hens regularly hatch in nests either 2 feet or 4 feet above the coop floor and I have never had a chick injured when the broody hens take them to the coop floor. Some people get really worried about that on this forum but I don't.

Since the chicks absorb the yolk before they hatch they can generally go over 72 hours without eating and drinking. That's so they can stay on the nest with Mama so Mama can hatch the later eggs instead of taking them off of the nest to find food and water. I never put food or water in the nests. I don't want the food attracting rats or mice and I don't want the water spilling and getting the nest wet. Others don't have those concerns.

I can't give you any guarantees with broody hens or any living animals. You can never be sure what a living animal will do. But my broody hens know more about being a broody hen than I will ever know and they know it by instinct. Some broody hens do not have the right instincts but I find the more I interfere the more harm I generally do. I trust my broody hens and let them manage things. That does not mean I don't observe and take action if needed but me interfering is not the first choice.

 

[Frazzled chicken tender]

The only time I ever had a chick fall out of a nest was when the nest was small in comparison to the hen. Sometimes the first chicks to hatch climb up on Mama's back while they are waiting on the later ones to hatch. That hen was so close to the edge of the nest that when the chick fell off it missed the nest and fell to the floor, four feet below. Four different times I picked a chick up off of the floor and put it back in the nest with Mama, probably the same chick each time. My other nests are larger and those chicks do not fall out. I don't know what your nest looks like or how that d'uccle fits but I probably would not worry.

That chick fell four feet four different times and was not hurt. My hens regularly hatch in nests either 2 feet or 4 feet above the coop floor and I have never had a chick injured when the broody hens take them to the coop floor. Some people get really worried about that on this forum but I don't.

Since the chicks absorb the yolk before they hatch they can generally go over 72 hours without eating and drinking. That's so they can stay on the nest with Mama so Mama can hatch the later eggs instead of taking them off of the nest to find food and water. I never put food or water in the nests. I don't want the food attracting rats or mice and I don't want the water spilling and getting the nest wet. Others don't have those concerns.

I can't give you any guarantees with broody hens or any living animals. You can never be sure what a living animal will do. But my broody hens know more about being a broody hen than I will ever know and they know it by instinct. Some broody hens do not have the right instincts but I find the more I interfere the more harm I generally do. I trust my broody hens and let them manage things. That does not mean I don't observe and take action if needed but me interfering is not the first choice.

Thank you, that makes sense that she is operating largely under instinct right now. I just went down there and can't even see the baby. I think it is beneath her. I offered her a blueberry and she ignored it. I had no idea that the babies climb on her back. I wonder what the baby will do if she gets down for a bit to eat and drink. I won't put food in there, hadn't thought about mice getting in there. I might put extra pine flakes underneath the nest or a small box though. I think the nesting box is big enough. She is sitting on a lot of eggs. I'll try to attach a pic.

 

[Frazzled chicken tender]

The only time I ever had a chick fall out of a nest was when the nest was small in comparison to the hen. Sometimes the first chicks to hatch climb up on Mama's back while they are waiting on the later ones to hatch. That hen was so close to the edge of the nest that when the chick fell off it missed the nest and fell to the floor, four feet below. Four different times I picked a chick up off of the floor and put it back in the nest with Mama, probably the same chick each time. My other nests are larger and those chicks do not fall out. I don't know what your nest looks like or how that d'uccle fits but I probably would not worry.

That chick fell four feet four different times and was not hurt. My hens regularly hatch in nests either 2 feet or 4 feet above the coop floor and I have never had a chick injured when the broody hens take them to the coop floor. Some people get really worried about that on this forum but I don't.

Since the chicks absorb the yolk before they hatch they can generally go over 72 hours without eating and drinking. That's so they can stay on the nest with Mama so Mama can hatch the later eggs instead of taking them off of the nest to find food and water. I never put food or water in the nests. I don't want the food attracting rats or mice and I don't want the water spilling and getting the nest wet. Others don't have those concerns.

I can't give you any guarantees with broody hens or any living animals. You can never be sure what a living animal will do. But my broody hens know more about being a broody hen than I will ever know and they know it by instinct. Some broody hens do not have the right instincts but I find the more I interfere the more harm I generally do. I trust my broody hens and let them manage things. That does not mean I don't observe and take action if needed but me interfering is not the first choice.

I just had a thought. Pretty sure some of the eggs aren't viable. Is it likely.the hen will continue to.try to hatch the other eggs (not leaving the nest) even past the 72 hour mark? If so, should i intervene and feed the baby? This hen has been sitting on eggs since before Thanksgiving. We candled and only some showed movement.

 

[Yardmom]

The hen will most likely come off the nest to bring the hatched baby to food and water before 72 hours She will likely stay on the floor with the chick then. Watch just in case mom decides to go back to the nest. Did you set and mark eggs when she became broody or have other hens been adding to the nest?

 

[Frazzled chicken tender]

The hen will most likely come off the nest to bring the hatched baby to food and water before 72 hours She will likely stay on the floor with the chick then. Watch just in case mom decides to go back to the nest. Did you set and mark eggs when she became broody or have other hens been adding to the nest?

I believe other hens have been adding to the nest. She is a bantam and most of the hens are bigger than her. I read she and the chicks need to be separated from the flock but we don't have a separate smaller area to put her in.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Is it likely.the hen will continue to.try to hatch the other eggs (not leaving the nest) even past the 72 hour mark? If so, should i intervene and feed the baby?

I agree, the hen is likely to bring any chicks off of the nest and take them to food and water before it becomes a problem. And once she comes off of the nest she is finished incubating the other eggs.

The chicks talk to the hen and let her know when they are getting hungry and thirsty. After they internal pip the chicks talk to the hen even before they external pip to tell her they are hatching so she doesn't leave too early. I've had several hens leave the nest within 24 hours of the first chick hatching. I had one hen that hatched the first chick late on a Monday night. She did not take the chicks off of the nest for food and water until early Friday morning, about 80 hours later. I was planning on moving them off of the nest that morning but she was off the nest when I went down there. As long as they are healthy when they hatch the chicks can go more than 72 hours. I did not hear any chicks give that plaintive peeping sound so I left them alone late Thursday.

This hen has been sitting on eggs since before Thanksgiving. We candled and only some showed movement.

I believe other hens have been adding to the nest.

If she has been sitting on eggs that long then another egg has been added to her nest. Chicken eggs can't take over five weeks to hatch. Hens adding to the nest can cause two different problems. One is a staggered hatch. If the eggs do not all start at the same time then the hen may need to decide whether she should take the chicks that have already hatched off the nest for food and water before the later ones have hatched. Practically all broody hens choose the ones that have already hatched and abandon the rest.

The other potential problem is that if the number of eggs gets too large for her to be able to cover all of them one or more will get pushed out, cool off, and die. Then that egg gets back under her and another gets pushed out to die. You often do not get good hatches when this happens. I can't tell how well that hen could cover all those eggs but I suspect that could have happened with her. That's a tiny d'uccle and those look like mostly full-sized hen eggs. Four might have been enough.

The way I avoid these problems is to collect all the eggs I want the hen to hatch and start them at the same time. I mark the eggs (I use a black Sharpie) and check under the hen every day after the others have laid and remove any that don't belong. As long as you remove the extra eggs every day you can still eat them. If you do this your next hatch should go a lot smoother.

She is a bantam and most of the hens are bigger than her. I read she and the chicks need to be separated from the flock but we don't have a separate smaller area to put her in.

Some people isolate the broody and chicks. I don't. We all have different facilities and different experiences. In my opinion it makes more sense to isolate a hen and chicks if you coop and/or run are small. The hen needs some room to work. If she can, she will keep her chicks away from the rest of the flock so there is a lot less interference. Typically my other hens don't bother the chicks anyway, but my broody hens protect their chicks if they feel their babies are threatened. It works a lot better if the broody has room to work.

Another red flag to me is if you have an elevated coop or a pop door that the chicks have trouble using. Ramps seem to cause a lot of problems, especially with them getting back in the coop at night. My coop is on the ground and I build steps with pavers inside and out to make it easier for the chicks to maneuver but I still make sure I'm down there at bedtime to make sure they all got back in.