My first hatch with a broody hen was over a decade ago. Since then I’ve had dozens of hens hatch chicks. Most of the time things have run smoothly and even though they do the lion’s share of the work I have been called to intervene on occasion. Bringing new life into the world is fraught with risks and the whole process, although short, can be a bit of an emotional rollercoaster.
The following are stories about the ups and downs of hatching chicks.
One cold, almost 40F-degree morning, I spotted a dead one-week old chick on the ground. Then I saw the flock playing football with it. It must have strayed too far from the mama. I grabbed it out of the football game to check it out closer. Its legs were stretched out, its eyes were closed and it was kind of stiff.
To my dismay, one of the legs kind of moved just a little, or did I imagine it? I’m like, “Crap, the deed isn’t quite finished and it might be suffering”. I took it over to a heat lamp and held it there. After a couple minutes, a leg moved again and an eye tried to open. Every bone in its little body must have been broken so this wasn’t really a good thing. I felt around for broken bones and didn’t find any. There were no chirps. No responses to anything, but every so often a leg would move and an eye would open. I stayed with it. What else was I going to do?!
When I saw enough slight movements happen, I took it in the house and put a drop of honey on the side of its beak every few minutes like I do with failure to thrive kittens that are flat on their sides gasping. Darned if that chick didn’t start moving its legs more and start coming back to life. Pretty soon it was up on its feet, running around eating!
I gave it back to mama with a stern warning. He didn’t make it easy though. He did NOT want out of my hand. It was safe there. I’d set him down with mama and go to take my hand away and before I could get my hand out he’d be in it again. Over and over. That was a week or so ago. I can’t tell this chick from the other one that is the same colour. That mama never lost any more chicks. – Kandy Crockett
We did an ignorant, unknowingly cruel thing. Thankfully Mother Nature helped us fix our stupid mistake. We have two coops and let broody hens sit on eggs in both coops. Only one hen ended up hatching one baby. Three hens sat in one nest box, sharing the eggs between them and hatched three babies.
Before we took the time to research or call my knowledgeable breeder friends for advice on when to pull chicks, we stupidly decided they could go to their new home at almost four weeks old. We have a super sweet kid behind us who’s always wanted chickens and his mom made him wait until he was old enough to take care of them. I adore this college kid and was so excited to support him so we gave him our first coop, supplies and the four chicks.
The three moms with three babies weren’t phased when we took theirs out but the other hen with the single baby was NOT ok at all. I stupidly thought she’d get over it and realized how cruel we were when she paced the fence hearing her baby and when she wasn’t doing that she was by herself in the nesting box. I never felt such regret and she literally made me cry watching her not bounce back 24 hours later to the point I wondered if she’d make herself sick hiding in the nest box.
Thank God we got a chance to redeem ourselves when the chick got out of the coop and I happen to see it running around the yard behind us. I ran and grabbed the hen out of the nest box and stood her at the fence for her to hear her baby and she started frantically calling for it. It ran straight towards her through the chain link fence. She chirped at it and it ran past me, our rooster and 18 hens and straight upstairs to the nest box. I couldn’t believe it and needless to say, she’s going to keep this baby for as long as she wants, including forever. I hope she doesn’t put a chicken karma curse on us for torturing her.
The neighbour totally understood and agreed after he watched mom frantic and was happy to reunite them. We moved her to a safe little coop to raise it as long as she wants and she tucked that baby under her until it finally came out for air. This is why I’ve always said I leave breeding anything to breeders and another lesson we learned the hard way. This was really up there in stupidity. – Deborah Smith
This is wild! The incubator lid slid out of my hands and crushed this poor egg about five days before hatch date. I was heartbroken and felt terrible. In an effort to keep it alive, I put candle wax on the break in the membrane and then wrapped it in Saran wrap in the hope of retaining some moisture. Today the little one hatched. I’m shocked and thrilled and grateful she survived! Life, uh.. finds a way. – Heather Nash
One thing I’ve learned about Ayam Cemanis is that they are hard to hatch. In almost every hatch there is a dead one perfectly formed in the shell. I decided to make sure that didn’t happen this time. Four Ayams hatched and the last one hatched had wry neck. Vitamin supplements fixed that almost instantly. Two eggs were left. One pipped and one no pip.
It was day 22 and time to see if I could help. I tackled the egg with the pip first which wasn’t all the way through the shell. I heated a paper towel and wrapped the egg and held it under a heat lamp and started picking away some of the shell. I immediately hit a vein and blood started gushing, so I apologized to the living beak I saw and put her back in the incubator. I thought I had possibly, even probably, killed her.
I opened the other egg slowly and the chick was perfectly formed and dead. No blood. No movement. Never pipped. I decided to give Nearly Murdered time to develop and six hours passed. I pulled her back out with the hot towel. The other babies had all been out for 12 hours and it was late. I carefully pulled back the top membrane and again tons of blood. Horrified, I wrapped her in the moist paper towel and put her back. This time I was sure I had murdered her. I went to bed after I saw she was still breathing. I got up many times to check and feed Itty and to look in on Nearly. I told a friend I just hoped that she wouldn’t become simply “Murdered” by morning.
This morning she was still alive in the same spot. No progress. So out came the egg and under a heat lamp. I started to moisten her. Everything was crusty like a burnt scone: feathers, shell and membrane. I worked really slowly with the moist towel and started chipping. I got the entire top of the shell off. Her head unfurled like a fern. I wasn’t sure if the whole yolk was absorbed so I put her back on the moist paper towel in the incubator on a half shell. Again, not sure if I had killed her but we are on day 23! Half an hour later she pulled out of her shell and stood up. And did laps. I nearly wept for joy.
Welcome to the world Nearly Murdered chick! I’m so glad I didn’t kill you. She’s joined the other four Ayams in the brooder and is finding her legs. Hatching Ayam Cemanis is not for the faint of heart. – Kara O’Brien
Thanks to everyone who shared their stories and photos. Featured photo credit: Bitchin’ Chickens
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