why would a mother leave her eggs?

[Jennycluckcluck]

I have a bantam hen who has left her eggs twice now, 2 weeks into incubation. She has 6 eggs and one has been pecked to reveal a perfectly normal chick in the making. She goes back but her eggs have been unattended for quite a while. Is there any chance the other 5 could be alive? Is there anything i can do? She has had 2 previous hatchings and is normally a good mother....???

 

[sourland]

Check and make sure the nest is not infested with mites. Mite infestation is a common reason that hens will stop brooding.

 

[RoosterDon]

Has that hen brooded and hatched before? I have had two different hens start brooding after seeing the first then next hens brood and hatch, only to lose interest and leave their eggs, OR start sitting on other eggs. Who Knows.

With this current hatch, I had a new hen sitting on 8 eggs, then she up and left one day, out of the clear and blue, and just lost interest. But, a second hen took over that same day, which I had never seen before. And she has hatched 14 of 19 in the last 3-4 days.

This is the fun and sad part of what we do. You never know what they will do next.

Two days ago I found an egg that my second brooder and poked a hole in and ate the fertilized egg, then she booted the shell out of the nest. Most likely she knew it was a bad egg, but who knows.