When will I know the chicks are here?

[rclover08]

Hi all VERY new to all of this. We have lincolnshire buffs. Got a very broody hen and we felt so bad taking her eggs off her all the time. So we set her up in a separate coop on 3 eggs. Candled at day 7 and we had 2 definates (saw them move!) and 1 which I thought looked like a yolker but because I'm a novice marked it and put it back under. Went back 3 days later to double check it and the hen had kicked it out anyway. How clever!! She is very dedicated. Anyway we are on day 20 now. My question is will I just know when the chicks are here? Will their tweets be quite loud so I can hear them from under her? Or will the hens behaviour change? I don't want to move her to look obviously as I don't want to disturb anything or damage the eggs. I've left it to her expertise and just ensured she has plenty of water and crumb. I know it's probably a really blonde question, but I just don't know if it will be obvious? Thanks in advance

 

[Odelia]

Don't worry it will be obvious. They will cheep. She will stay on the nest until both of them hatch. Don't about them eating or drinking right away. They still have the last of the egg yolk and are fine for a long time with out anything. When they are dry and feeling a bit recovered from hatching they will start coming out from under her.

 

[CSisley]

Typically when they are all done hatching she'll get up and you'll see them. During hatch time, a good mother hen will wait till all her biddies have hatched before getting up and moving around. You may hear them under there peeping after they have pipped their shells. She won’t make any obvious changes in her demeanor but I’ve seen them cluck softly to the chicks working on coming out. Make sure you candle any remaining eggs to make sure there aren't ones that are just late coming out. We've had a hen accidentally abandon a live chick that just hadn't hatched yet. At the time we didn't have an incubator so we had to make do with putting it under a light and surprisingly the chick was able make it out of the shell on its own and didn’t shrink wrap with the lack of humidity.

 

[BMiles]

You will hear cheeping and the momma hen talking to them. Once the chicks are dry they will start exploring and sticking their heads out.

 

[rclover08]

Thanks all for your replies. Caught mum off the eggs today which is a rare sight so shifted my bum as quick as I could to go peek. Absolutely gutted as their is now only one egg under her, even though they were both definately developing. After some detective work I found out my dad removed a bloody broken egg from the door of the hutch so something must have gone wrong. Poor chick so just hoping and praying this last one makes it into the world safely. At least I've seen the egg so I know no babies are here yet. Maybe day 22 will be the day. I think I will do some in the incubator next year as although I love the natural way and leaving it to mum I can't help feeling on edge not knowing what is going on xxxx