Hen injured adoptive chick, had to put it to sleep. Worried about the other one ADVICE NEEDED!!!

[Eristas]

Last night we slipped two chicks under a mama hen that already had 2 chicks. I had to hatch these two in a brooder because she had abandoned the eggs. The 2 new chicks are about a day younger than the first lot. Nightime went well but she severely injured one of the adoptive chicks around mid-day today and the vet advised putting her down as she had less than 1% chance of survival even with treatment.

Now mama is with the two chicks she hatched and the one adoptive chick and I'm worried.

She's letting the adoptive chick (Titania) go under her but when they are walking around the run she pecks at her occaisionally and I don't see her doing this to the others. Should I be worried she'll kill Titania? Should I just go retrieve her and raise her myself in the brooder? I don't know what to do. Obviously it'd be best if mama did the mama-ing but I don't want to lose another chick.

First time raising chicks and I don't know what the best course of action is right now.

Please, any advice appreciated.

 

[casportpony]

Welcome to BYC, sorry for your loss. You shouldn't raise one chick alone, so if you're gonna take it away from her, I suggest getting another chick to keep it company, or remove all of the chicks and raise them together.

 

[Eristas]

I went outside to see if I could grab Titania away but it was impossible as mama won't let me near any of them. I spoke to a friend of mine who has more exp with chicks and she recommended monitoring the situation closely and hopefully within 48 hours mama will bond more with Titania. They're all scratchign around together right now so in a couple of hours when the sun goes down I'm hoping they'll all be under her and I can close up the coop for the night. I'll be up at 5am tomorrow to continue monitoring.

I wouldn't want to take all the chicks away from mama because she is very good with the 2 that hatched under her and she'd be very distressed if I took all the babies away.

 

[Eristas]

They're in the coop, its all dark and the babies are under a sleeping mama. Hoping for a peaceful night and will be up at 5am to see how it's going. Sincerely hoping that mama will take more to Titania tomorrow.