The food and water should not be within her reach before the chicks hatch. Two feet away is fine but I’d go further if you can. It’s important for her to get up and stretch her legs and have a big poop far away from the nest. She also needs access to a dust bath while she has her exercise time...
I don’t think I’ve had any hatch before day 20. They sometimes pip on day 19, but not usually.
A broody hen will usually sit with her brand new chicks for a day after they hatch so having food and water right there isn’t necessary right at the beginning. Once you are sure they have all hatched...
I’m sorry to tell you but I think that cockerel will cause a lot of problems. Cockerels start getting their big-boy hormones long before pullets are ready for that and it can lead to a lot of stress in the flock.
I always recommend waiting until the pullets are beginning to lay and then get a...
If she looks the same as your other chickens you can put some food coloring (or Blu Kote) on her feathers so you can tell her apart. That will work temporarily until you can get a leg band.
If you want to keep hatching, you could always sell or cull this hen because she won’t help with that goal.
Now would be a good time to evaluate your flock based on your goals and decide if you need that particular rooster right now.
I recently got rid of one rooster, Red, who was extra clumsy on the hens and had scratched up a few of them. It’s way too hot here in SE Georgia to make the hens wear...
Is there a chance that she killed the chick accidentally? If so I’d give her another chance.
If you want to give her another chance this broody cycle, I’d give her feed store chicks, as young as you can get them. Like @nuthatched said, having her sit another whole incubation cycle would be very...
She may be going broody.
I have had broody guineas before and the main advice I have is to pen them up when the chicks are hatched. The parents don’t realize the keets cannot keep up and take them all over the place and eventually lose them. I am sure that would be even more important if they...
I would feed the broiler feed until the chick starter is available. Making your own feed could lead to accidental deficiencies that wouldn’t happen on the broiler food.
I have fed broiler feed to dual purpose chicks with no bad effects when my regular chick feed or All Flock wasn’t available.
That chick is probably dying. In my experience they gasp near the end.
With chicks that young it’s hard to guess what might be the problem. It could be a respiratory disease or just something wrong internally. If you have more than one pass away you could try to get one necropsied by the state...
If you are in the US, your state probably has a vet lab that can give a diagnosis. Call them and see what they require and how much it will cost. Every state is different. Here in Georgia the NPIP testers will come out and test for Mycoplasma and other illnesses along with the NPIP tests for...
I’ve never hatched them myself but I’ve read that call ducks can be hard to hatch and may need assistance. You may have more losses haching with a broody if that’s true.
I’m sorry about your chicken.
If you decide to put her down, the broomstick method is very fast and painless. This video is how I learned how to do it.
Broomstick Method
Eggs freeze really well and are useful for baking or scrambling. I usually separate them and have jars of just whites for scrambling (my husband prefers them). The yolks I use to make egg noodles which I freeze and use in all my pasta dishes. This is especially nice because my husband has to...
Yes, that’s the stuff. It seems thinner than you’d expect but a few coats have worked pretty well. We get a lot of rain and so far the panels I painted in the fall are still waterproof.
If you don’t mind having to do some maintenance periodically you can paint plywood with roofing paint. You’ll need to repaint and/or replace the plywood once in a while depending on your weather.
It was a nice solution for my broody hen coops, the paint I chose is white so it helps the little...