What went wrong with this hatch?

[cazza7]

My hen Mrs Miniver decided to get broody while I was out of town and by the time I got home, we had 7 chicks in the making. My candling efforts were a bit fail-y so I just decided to let mama and nature take care of things. I gave her a safe maternity ward inside her henhouse that she shares with our rooster and two other sister wives and she was such a devoted sitter, that I decided to gently lift her off her nest once a day for her to eat/drink/dust bathe, which she happily did for about 15 minutes before going back to her nest. Saturday I lifted her off to discover one fuzzy and one wet chick almost out of its shell and both peeping. I set her down next to the nest and slowly backed away and left her alone for several hours. When I came back, the wet one was dead. Later I discovered a very cracked shell with a dead chick partially out but very attached to its shell. The next day, one pipped, but died with just its little beak out. This morning, when I was bringing her breakfast, she was standing up and there was a hatching chick kind of buried in the nesting material (pine shavings - I tried other material like straw and even paper towels and puppy pads over the shaving but she rejected them) but peeping vigorously - she settled back dow and I waited a little bit before checking back in - I was going to see if I could place a paper towel under it so it would be less covered in shavings, but it was dead - It was still attached by its umbilical cord, and there was some dark blood. My plan had been to candle the remaining 3 eggs today since it had been 72 hours since the initial hatch and see if we had viable chicks remaining. Now there are 2 and I'm a nervous wreck. Is it my inexperienced mama? Is it just really bad luck? Am I doing something wrong? Meanwhile the first chick is doing very well - eating and drinking and being a little bossypants.
I need to candle the remaining two, right?
One chick out of seven - it's breaking my heart!

 

[bobbi-j]

Sorry it didn't turn out so well. I think one thing that may have happened was the other hens added to the clutch after your mama started setting - this would explain the time between first hatch and now. I would personally just let her be. Either the other eggs will hatch, or they won't. She may stay on the nest another day or two, then leave it if the other eggs haven't hatched by then. I use a hands-off approach with my broodies. I separate them from the others so the other hens can't lay in the nest. (If you aren't able to do that, then mark the ones she's setting on and pick any other unmarked eggs every day). I make sure she has food and water - and this year added a dust bath - in her "maternity ward" - and leave her be. I'll check once or twice a week to make sure she hasn't broken any eggs, but I leave it entirely up to her as to when she wants to get off the nest to eat, drink, poop and stretch her legs. I figure chickens have been hatching and raising chicks for centuries without my help. I let Nature take its course. Sometimes chicks are just too weak to hatch on their own. Sometimes the other eggs don't develop. It's hard to know what happens and why. Enjoy the ones that survive, let her brood again next time around, and maybe it will turn out better.