Help! Broody Killed Chick

[RissyMcD]

I slipped 4 day old chicks under my broody hen yesterday evening after dark hoping she'd wake in the morning and think her eggs had hatched. She'd been sitting on fake eggs for a couple weeks. All seemed to be going well, but when I checked in a couple hours later one of the chicks had been pecked to death and she was pecking on another... not aggressively like she wanted to kill it though. She watched it peep a few times then would peck it and wait. When it continued to peep, she pecked again. It almost seemed like she was annoyed at the peeping and trying to get the chick to shut up. Or perhaps she thought it was an intruder trying to get her eggs. She pecks at me in the same way if I get near her. I rescued the one she was pecking and the other two from under her and returned her fake eggs. Now I've got the three surviving chicks in the house. Should I try to slip them under her again? Perhaps later at night when she was fully asleep? Or before she wakes up in the morning? Has anyone had a hen kill one and not the others.

 

[sunflour]

I would not put the surviving chicks back with her, she has already shown you she'll kill them. Evidently she knows they are not hers.

 

[Yorkshire Coop]

X2 I wouldn't put them back with her if she has killed one already she obviously knows they are not hers. Nature really is a curious thing.