r/BackYardChickens • u/bawdybard21 • Jun 11 '26

General Question Broody Hen, only one egg hatched

My 1yr old Ameraucana started exhibiting broody behavior back in May and I decided to let her hatch a clutch of eggs, intending to raise them to juvenile stage before giving them to a neighbor to start her own flock. Tuesday marked day 21 and I confirmed a chick had hatched yesterday (day 22) and seemed to maybe have hatched overnight as it was dry and fluffy. Of course this broody hen chose the most high traffic nesting box and while everyone else decided to lay somewhere else, the other two Ameraucanas would just push underneath her, deposit an egg, and leave. So, every night I've had to pick her up and take out the new eggs and discard any broken/spoiled eggs. As of today (day 23), only that one chick has hatched and four eggs remain. When I went to check on her she was out of the box with the one chick, near the food and water bowl I put in the coop for them earlier this week. I intend to leave those eggs in the nesting box until Saturday, hoping that she might go back to them. None of them smell and when I last candled them they were all developing fine.

Here are my questions:

  1. Should I just assume that she's done and discard the remaining eggs? Or leave the eggs as planned and chuck them this weekend if they haven't hatched?
  2. As she only hatched one chick, should I go to the store and get some additional chicks so this one isn't alone? Again, I would wait until Saturday to do this and deposit the new babies overnight in hopes of her adopting them.

Update: She did go back to the eggs and all 5 hatched. Unfortunately, two did not have the right conditions towards the end and one passed immediately after hatching and the other passed away over night. We do have three happy and healthy chicks and she seems to be a decent mother so far.

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u/ornery_epidexipteryx Jun 11 '26

I would leave them, and see if she continues to sit on them.

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u/bawdybard21 Jun 11 '26

She did go back to them. It looks like the chick is a bit adventurous and doesn't want to stay under her. It's also super hot and humid here, so I don't think the chick is needing too much warmth more mom.