broody with 1 live chick - advice please

[chickadoodle]

Hi Yesterday I moved the broody off her nest she had 1 live chick 1 dead chick and 7 smelly eggs which I removed. However she is still sitting and has not left the nest to poo or feed and doesn't seem to be bothered about rearing the chick. She is now sitting on nothing. Should I just leave her alone with her chick or find a couple of other chicks to give her a brood to look after. Any help much appreciated. Thanks!

 

[karminski]

i mite be in the same boat as you , this is the second time one after the other mine has brooded { shes handled it well } first 3 chicks died right from hatching and the other eggs were not fertile so i removed them but my maran was as stressed as hell so i got another 2 fertile eggs right away and she was more then happy to sit on them 1 hatched this afternoon and it was breathing but died soon after i have just gone and checked her again and she was standing above the other egg so i asuming thats ready to hatch { i pray it survives ] if it doesnt then i dont know wether its worth getting a few chicks of my friend as his are hatching in the inccy and give her those as my maran really wants babies again i am sitting here worried like hell as i dont know wether to keep checking her or leave her to it , my friend has 15 eggs in the inccy but only 1 so far has hatched so he doesnt know if the rest will hatch or not as i was going to have a few of him anyway . forgot to add the chick from today loked like it had been pecked on the head as there was a part of scalp missing which i thought was a bit of shavings and hole in its head . dont know if i like this hatching lurk anymore

 

[chickadoodle]

Sorry to hear that dont lose faith coz when things go right its a wonderful experience! Honest. This afternoon my broody came out and started to act like a mother hen with the chick following her. I had already contacted a local childrens farm and they had 5 day old chicks for £3-25 each. I had intended to put 3 with her and see if she would come off the nest however when I got home after lunch she was out and about with the new chick. I have decided to leave alone although I do not like the idea of a lone chick entering the rest of the fold in about 4 months time. I am still hopeful that another girl will go broody although my husband wont like it!! Having looked around it would appear that our problems are widespread this year maybe its just a bad chicken year? Lets hope yours survive if not I would try and put a couple of day olds under her. try local childrens farms etc. keep us informed.

 

[chickadoodle]

ps. I meant to mention that half of my eggs were marans. I wonder if they are harder to hatch for some abscure reason? Also last year when my broody sat none of the three marans hatched then. Bizarre?

 

[karminski]

it might be one of those years who knows . last year i hatched cream legbars omggggggggggggggg cute chickies with great patterns and they grow strong an well and i think they went to someone on here , this years eggs were just a pure mixture bit like the mongrel in the dog world :lol: forgot to add that you mite do better getting a few more chicks to go with your little one if you can as when your chick gets older you may have probs getting him into the older gang i had that with mine which is one of the reasons i got rid of them but at least if hes got friends his own age it mite not be quite so hard but each peoples birds are different so tis differcult to say wether yours will be excepted without any probs .

 

[Anonymous]

just thought I'd mention this,one of the earlier posts said about a chick that had hatched and the hen was sat with the chick.This is perfectly normal for the chick and mother.When chicks hatch,they don't need to eat straight away as they still have a lot of yolk inside their tums to digest.This can take 24 hrs,so don't worry when a hen stays put with her chick or chicks immediately after hatching.
Chicks hatched in an incubator are safe to be left for 24 hrs before being moved to a brooder.