Would a broody abandon her nest at first pip?

[MistRidge]

@MistRidge how is your little family doing? Chicks still well?

@igorsMistress It's honestly going so well! Mama is super protective and attentive, and it's been amazing to watch her teaching them everything. The two kiddos are already leaps and bounds ahead of where my brooder babies were at the same age last year. I still keep Mama and babies in their own separate "nursery" within the coop at night, but she's started cautiously introducing them to the rest of the flock during the day. She desperately wanted to go outside yesterday, so I set up a little pen for them so they could safely hang out near the flock. The babies lost their little minds when their feet touched grass . My little turtle baby (who my niece named Blackberry) doesn't seem to have any lingering issues related to his/her hatch, and the hernia has completely healed. He 100% keeps up with his sibling (who my nephew named "Electric" or "Tricks" ), and the two of them zoom around doing parkour between the other chickens when I let them all interact. Other than a few irritated pecks, the rest of the flock has been surprisingly patient with their shenanigans.
I know it's still really early days, but I'm remaining very hopeful that they continue to grow up into happy healthy chickens. I'll do my best to update this post as they get bigger

 

[MistRidge]

What a great story! Good job!

Thank you

 

[igorsMistress]

Awe look at them! They are beautiful and I’m so happy for you that all is going well. Broody mamas are the way to go in my opinion. The more you let them mingle with the flock the better. They’ll learn flock etiquette and integrate so much easier this way. Looking forward to updates!

 

[Altairsky]

My hen acted exactly the opposite. In the last week she completely refused to leave the nest, starving herself.
She had water and food right in front of the nest, but getting up was absolutely inconceivable in the hen's brain. As advised in this forum, I ignored this, hoping that she would get out of the nest to eat sooner or later, but when she was really starving she decided to eat one of her 16 day old eggs, and the chick inside it rather than getting up and eat from the bowl 2 inches away from her. So from that day I fed her and gave her water in the nest. Every hour I went to her with fresh water and waited for her to drink as much as she wanted.
Once the chick hatched, I let her sit for 30 more hours then I kicked her out of the nest and when she noticed the chicks running around, thankfully she snapped out of this sitting-at-all-cost condition.
Now she's a really good mama.

 

[MistRidge]

My hen acted exactly the opposite. In the last week she completely refused to leave the nest, starving herself.
She had water and food right in front of the nest, but getting up was absolutely inconceivable in the hen's brain. As advised in this forum, I ignored this, hoping that she would get out of the nest to eat sooner or later, but when she was really starving she decided to eat one of her 16 day old eggs, and the chick inside it rather than getting up and eat from the bowl 2 inches away from her. So from that day I fed her and gave her water in the nest. Every hour I went to her with fresh water and waited for her to drink as much as she wanted.
Once the chick hatched, I let her sit for 30 more hours then I kicked her out of the nest and when she noticed the chicks running around, thankfully she snapped out of this sitting-at-all-cost condition.
Now she's a really good mama.

Yikes!! Yeah I have another girl who's just started to go broody and I'm already thinking she's going to be like yours. I haven't seen her leave the nest once in the past 5 days, and when I checked on her yesterday her face was covered in yolk. [Side note: only today did I notice an egg had become "glued" to her armpit feathers with dried yolk... Like she wasn't holding on to it on purpose, I had to carefully dislodge it from her crusty downy feathers. Definitely an effective way to make sure it stays warm, lol, but I figured that was just asking for potential issues]. I offered her water and food in the nest box today after seeing her panting. She was SO THIRSTY. I thought she'd take care of herself too, but I guess I'm going to either have to keep offering her food and water throughout the day.. or just toss her out of the nest for fifteen minutes a day of mandatory self-care time