Why did my chicks not hatch?

cazzycaz

I had a broody hen sitting on five eggs one hatched a healthy chick.

One hatched and mum ate it , Two fully developed but didn't break out.

Why was this?.....now i have one lonesome little chick!:(

LisaO

Could be lots of reasons. Just had the same experience (but with duck eggs) - 1 hatched out of 6.

Maybe the hen is a first time mum? Perhaps she ate one because there was something wrong with it?

Fully formed chicks not hatching is not unusual, sometimes they don't have the strength to break through the membrane & shell - humidity plays a large part of this, I think, as in very warm, dry weather the membrane inside the shell can dry out & become quite tough.

Even in the artificial controlled environment of an incubator 100% hatching is very rare. It's a subject I have tried to find more info. on in the past but with limited success.

Your little chick will be fine, as long as it has it's mum.

We had a single chick hatched by our bantam & she mothered it for way longer than was really necessary! It was still following her faithfully around & calling out to her if they got separated when it was 6 months old & much bigger than her

Graces7

cazzycaz wrote: »

I had a broody hen sitting on five eggs one hatched a healthy chick.

One hatched and mum ate it , Two fully developed but didn't break out.

Why was this?.....now i have one lonesome little chick!:(

Inexperienced hen. It happens.

ATE IT? Are you sure? Could a rat have got it?

Sometimes the chicks need help getting out if the shell is very hard.

They get exhausted trying.

This is a skilled and very delicate job. Too soon and you kill the chick, and too late and it dies. If you go in at the wrong place, it can bleed to death.

It is something I learned to do with eggs; hens, ducks, geese, peafowl.

Spent long nights at it!! Used to bring the unhatched eggs in when one or two had hatched as the chicks can get crushed against the whole eggs.

You get to know which hens can hatch well and which cannot.

Is she caring for her one chick?

lolli

Hey Op,

Not all eggs will hatch. Some won't be fertilized, some will develop a bit and then die. Its just one of those things. We always set a hen with about 12 eggs and usually about 7 or 8 will come out.

Also thunder can sometimes kill the chicks in the egg, so what you can do is put a couple of horse shoes under the nest and it earths the nest.

meathstevie

cazzycaz wrote: »

I had a broody hen sitting on five eggs one hatched a healthy chick.

One hatched and mum ate it , Two fully developed but didn't break out.

Why was this?.....now i have one lonesome little chick!:(

Quite likely the eggshells weren't soft enough. You can remedy that by using a squirt bottle with water and spray a tiny amount of water on the eggs while the hen is feeding.

cazzycaz

Thanks..yes mum is taking good care of her chick. I thought i would return her to the other hens when the chick was 4-6 weeks old but that would leave it all by itself.

Thanks for all your tips it was the first time i had a broody hen and was so excited!! When will mum start laying again? Will she get broody again?

LisaO

I usually keep the chicks & hen together & secure (as we have cats & dogs) until they are big enough not to be in danger. Then I let them run with the rest of the flock. They stay close to Mum at first but gradually get more independent as time goes on. The hen will start to lay again once she is not caring intensively for the chicks & depending on the hen may go broody again as well!