Helping Chickens Out

Terri · **Joined:** Wed Aug 29, 2012 11:30 am **Posts:** 2

Hello! Im new here and after some help/reassurance. We had 2 broody hens and had fertile eggs under them. Only 4 in total. So 3 had hatched and there was still one waiting. When i went down to check food and water this morning the last egg was pipped but both hens were off their nests with their chicks. I would have loved to be able to take that egg and pop it under another broody hen but i didnt have one. So, being the big softy that i am i decided i couldnt just leave it there to die so i brought it inside with me. Now we dont have an incubator so i had to try to keep the egg warm and humid enough without a mother hen. Seems i did a pretty good job and about 8 hours later it started to give hatching a good go. It got almost halway and then made no progress for a couple of hours. Mother hens had gone back to bed so we popped the hatching egg back under her to finish the job as she can do a much better job than me.
Anyway, after some research i decided to talk to my grandfather who is a breeder and shower and he confirmed what i feared, the chicken had gotten stuck to the membrane. We went down and carefully peeled the membrane away and gave the chick a bit of a hand to get out (not all the way but just so it could push its way out completely on its own) and popped it back under its mum.
Has anyone had any experience with a similar thing and had success? Did we do the right thing? Helping it out wasnt a decision we took lightly as we didnt want to kill the poor thing.

Thanks in advance

SheepFarm · **Joined:** Wed Jul 04, 2012 11:59 am **Posts:** 35

I have done that many many times and the chicks have always survived but make sure the hen does not leave it behind if the other chicks have a few hours head start

mulberry tree · **Joined:** Sat Sep 01, 2012 11:46 am **Posts:** 4

Can I help out ducklings in the same way?

SheepFarm · **Joined:** Wed Jul 04, 2012 11:59 am **Posts:** 35

Sure any breed of poultry just make sure its 100% ready to hatch and no fresh blood

mulberry tree · **Joined:** Sat Sep 01, 2012 11:46 am **Posts:** 4

Cheers for that sheepfarmer I just wanted to be sure

SheepFarm · **Joined:** Wed Jul 04, 2012 11:59 am **Posts:** 35

No problems

Nicolas33 · **Joined:** Tue Sep 04, 2012 10:51 pm **Posts:** 2

All my attempts have ended in tears so I don't try anymore I just let mother nature decide whats best for the chick

Petite Poulet · **Joined:** Thu Jun 09, 2011 7:17 pm **Posts:** 5219

I had one mother hen sitting on several eggs, four hatched out, the fifth one eventually hatched a few hours later, he was the runt of the clutch, and had splayed eggs, the other chicks picked on him and their mother was also evicting him from the nest and we kept having to pop him back with the others under her.

Then the sixth egg hatched two days later, and it's mother had turfed him out of the nest and sadly we found him dead. I guess it's survival of the fittest and animals have instinct and know if something is wrong and perhaps even cull their own young if they suspect there is. We threw the 7th egg out.

Sometimes best to leave things to Mother Nature.

Nicolas33 · **Joined:** Tue Sep 04, 2012 10:51 pm **Posts:** 2

Such a little cutey and I love the colour

julie at serenity · **Posted:** Wed Sep 05, 2012 5:54 pm

Petite Poulet wrote:

Sometimes best to leave things to Mother Nature.

fully agree

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