[bumpkins]

Hi
When my broody climbed back into her nest box today she broke two of her eggs - they were due to hatch around about Wed/Thur this coming week.  Immediately one little chick literally fell out - very tiny - a little bloody but ok.  The other egg was just cracked, but the chick carried on and hatched and that seems to be holding its own too.  There are 4 more eggs which may or may not hatch later in the week.  Is it ok to have such a time lapse between chicks?  Obviously the premature ones may not survive, but our broody seems to be totally dedicated to them, so we've decided to let her carry on.  We're just a bit worried that there may well be a couple of days gap before the others hatch.  Is there anything that we should be doing?  Thanks everyone.

[Steph Hen]

Oh dear, this doesn't sound good. I would guess they'd not survive, but I don't know as this isn't something I've had or heard of. If they do survive more than a couple of days I'd expect mrs hen to leave the nest to get them to food and water, and so abandon the rest of the eggs. I guess if you provide food and water very close (rather than out in a run) maybe she'll sit a bit longer..? I would be surprised if they live, but fingers crossed for them.

It's odd that she broke the eggs, Thinking about your hen as a broody, were the eggs thin shelled? If not I wouldn't let her sit again if she were mine.

[HesterF]

I'd be amazed if they survived this early - especially having been 'thrown out' of the egg. Normally they get to hatch slowly and absorb the yolk and disconnect from the blood vessels over a couple of days rather than in minutes. Four days early is also very premature from a 21 day gestation. If you want her to stay sitting and they look like they will survive, you could take them to brood artificially for a  couple of days until the others are hatched. I'm sure it would be easy enough to reintegrate them by just popping them back amongst the other chicks which in reality will be the same age. Good luck!

[chrismahon]

Problem you will have Bumpkins is that the mother will abandon the unhatched eggs to concentrate on feeding the premature hatchers, if they survive that is. So the idea to remove the early ones for a while is your best bet I think.

[bumpkins]

Thank you everyone.  They are still hanging in there!!!  They are still tiny and a bit wobbly but not only are they feeding, but Broody is, with a bit of persuasion, still sitting on her eggs.  One is just pipping as I speak.  I honestly can't believe it.  We have been overseeing them as Broody was torn between helping them and sitting on the remaining eggs but with a bit of our help, she's doing an amazing job.  Thanks again for all of the advice - I guess that there is a first time for everything although we're aware that things can still go wrong.

[Steph Hen]

Wow. That is incredible that they've lived this long! Hope all continues well.

[in the hills]

My daughter hatched some chicks under one of her broody hens last week. The hatch was staggered by several days. My little girl said she slipped an extra couple under a few days after the hen started sitting  .... but lesson now learnt.

Broody left the last couple of eggs at the point when the chicks had just made tiny holes in the shell. The 'pull' to feed her chicks was too strong, even though we had put feed/water etc nearby. Daughter found the hatching eggs with chicks still moving but eggs completely cold. We had an inccie ready as guessed what might happen but luckily another hen had just gone broody. Gave her the cold eggs and they hatched fine ... must have got there just in time.

Was telling farmers wife about it and she said to pop any eggs like this in the airing cupboard and it did work. She reared a lot of hens/turkeys/geese and said she'd often done it.

Maybe worth a try if it comes to it.

[waterbuffalofarmer]

the hatching year for us was bad, the chicks wouldn't hatch after 24 days and when I broke them to see if they were maybe the wrong way around they were very early so what was wrong then, should I have left them under way longer or not? anyway instead we bought some chicks at 6 weeks old instead, which are doing very well, however they are not mothered by the hen but were bought in on friday.

[Marches Farmer]

I usually discard anything not hatched by the end of day 24, assuming no problems with the incubator temperature dipping for any reason.  Late death in shell could be a bacterial infection in the incubator or health problems with the parent birds - low-grade infection, persistently infected mycoplasma or coccidiosis, for instance, or problems with the quality of the feed at some point.  Mostly, but not always, if the chick isn't strong enough to leave the shell it's not strong enough to have a healthy life.  Having said that, I didn't feed my breeding hens any extra oyster shell this year and the egg shells are just a little thinner and the chicks have hatched noticeably faster from pipping to emergence.  I guess very strong shells are preferable for broodies and eggs that are going to be packed and transported but not so important for an incubator.