What to do for just hatched egg

[Frazzled chicken tender]

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.




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.


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.

Thank you so much for such an informative reply. Next time I will do things differently, had no idea about the extra eggs from other hens causing issues. And the logistics of the baby chicks getting in and out of the nest, but that makes complete sense in our small and very elevated coop with steep ramp. I might put a small table beneath the box with a
cardboard catch box lined with something soft. Before I read your post I went down and put a tiny saucer with some starter crumbles and a small bit of scrambled egg next to the hen. She ate a tiny bit and made a clucking sound, then the baby came out from under her and she showed it how to eat. It copied her and then went back under her. I got another saucer and put a very small bit of water on the other side of the hen but she wasn't interested in that. I'm trying to leave them alone a good bit as I can tell she wants me to keep my distance. Thankfully the other hens seem to be leaving her alone. She is a bantam and they are much bigger so she can't really defend the baby. Sorry this ended up being such a long response.... just excited and nervous about the new addition.