Will broodiness stop upon early chick hatching?

[natemoore1986]

My one broody Buff Orpington has been sitting on a clutch of eggs. Three since May 3d. Five as afterthoughts a couple weeks later because I wanted some French Black Copper Maran chickens. The first three are beginning to hatch. One chick this morning.

Will she go back to sitting on the rest, or abandon them?

Worse case scenario, $25 down the drain, unless they'll keep until an amazon prime incubator arrives.

Thanks!

 

[sourland]

Generally a hen will break broodiness within 36 hours after the first chick hatches. Sometimes if you remove the chicks upon hatching and put them in a brooder the hen will continue setting - sometimes not.

 

[natemoore1986]

Well, I tried to get her to get back on the clutch by moving the chick over to them. She came over, got on top of the eggs, and started scratching. Actually broke one (never fertilized), so I moved her off the nest, got the eggs out, and went into panic mode.

A friend to the rescue, though. She hooked me up with another lady who let me borrow an incubator. They're in the it now.

My B.O. is sweet, even when she's broody and protecting her chicks, but she's dumb as a rock. If I neglect to remove the eggs each day, she'll sit on the wrong ones, and I'll have to move her back to the right clutch.

Good mother though. Meaner than my rooster (who I treat as if he were my pet crazy tiger) when any other hens come near her chicks.

 

[natemoore1986]

Today is hatching day, or tomorrow. I forgot about "day zero," and I didn't note the day I placed the eggs under my broody BO. I know the day they were delivered, and I think I placed them the next day.

Anyway, out of the eight French black copper maran eggs I bought from an eBay seller, only two fully developed. I dropped one unwrapping. Of the remaining five, only two had any embryo formation. Three were either never fertilized. Looked like a regular egg. Hopefully the seller will send me replacements. She guarantees fertility, but not hatching.

One chick is halfway unzipped and "cheeping." Still waiting for the other one to do something. It's hard to candle those dark eggs, but I think the beak is inside the air sac.

I'll give it a few more days.

 

[natemoore1986]

I'm tempted to help. I don't see any blood vessels on the membrane. Went to bed last night. No pip. This morning, woke up to a halfway zipped shell. It poked it's leg all the way out a couple hours ago. It'll give a couple of good kicks it I tap the incubator, but it hasn't progressed beyond that.

Should a intervene a little, a lot, or just wait?

 

[natemoore1986]

That other embryo was dead. It had an air space on both ends of the egg, sank like a rock when I did the float test, and no movement at all.

I scraped the fat end thin enough with a pocket knife to where I could make a little hole without piercing the membrane. I peel enough of the shell off so that I could touch the little feller. No reaction. Didn't move at all to the stimulus.

The one remaining chick is still trying to break out. I did gently flake off the rest of the shell so it is fully unzipped, but didn't mess with the membrane.

It is drying out and looking leathery, though. I put a damp paper towel in with it in the incubator. I'm going this alone it looks like.

 

[de kippendame]

I'd probably help it out. As long as you don't see anymore veining, and really you shouldn't with it zipped that far, you should be fine. Looks like it wasn't in the best position for hatching and it might need a little help finishing up.

 

[natemoore1986]

What do I name my $25 lone survivor?