Sores on a baby chicken?!?!?

[GimmeCake]

I had a chicken hatch yesterday under a broody hen and it looked ok but I saw a red open sore around where it's ear is. It ended up going to another hen which was previously broody and hatched eggs just the day before and was sitting with her chickens. I checked on it later and it went under that hen and it staying there, not coming out from under her like the rest. It barley gets up and doesn't seem interested in pecking at anything like the others. The sore appeared closed just a few hours later but the behaviour was the same. What should I do?

 

[troy4]

nothing really.Just wait for results.Do you know the age to your broody?Also is this the first time this hen went broody?

 

[troy4]

Im talking about the 1 the chick hatched under.

 

[GimmeCake]

The broody hen is probably about a little over a year old and I do not believe she has ever been broody before. The chick is less then 3 days old as of now.

 

[troy4]

She may not have realized what was going on.New hens at going broody and being young may not know how to care for the chicks she saw it and probably was not sure of it so do to her actions she pecked the baby as a deffence yet realized it was her very own chick or still was not sure and the chick left because she wanted to kill hi.

 

[GimmeCake]

Well, today it died.

I saw them outside with the other chickens (they haven't ever really been outside before), and while the other 3 were with their mother, this one was laying upside down in the middle of the coop. From the looks of it, it appears to have been pecked to death in the area of the sores.

Poor chick.

 

[troy4]

Mothers WILL kill the chicks if they are sick.She may have been the 1,but a stranger hen may have killed the abandon chick.