Hen attacked chick!

Date sort Score sort
jak2002003

jak2002003

Crowing
13 Years
Oct 24, 2009
3,155
1,333
446
Thailand
One of my hens has attacked another's day old chick.
sad.png
I found the injured chick on the ground under the nest box. Its mother is still brooding the rest of the eggs that are in various stages of hatching.

The chick has a very small wound on the back of its head - but no blood. Its acting very unstable on its legs - not sure if its due a hard peck on the head or it getting chilled. Its fully dried off and the weather was very hot today so I don't think it got too cold.

It can not walk, although it can sit up fine. Its head keeps going backwards and the chick will fall over backwards if it tried to walk. I have given it some water - it was very thirsty, and put it back under the broody hen.

Any ideas if it has a chance to recover or what? Its still very lively and cheeping a lot and there is no open wound.
 
I have no idea what its chances of survival are, but I'd give it some time to recover. If it's still not able to stand after all the other chicks are hatched, and its head is still flopping back, I'd put it down.
 
I had a chick hatch on the first of August that had open bloody wounds on both sides of his head. Not sure if she got pecked at by momma or another hen. To this date she is doing great. She is the bottom chick in my avatar photo. As bad as her wounds were I was afraid she would not make it, but she has so far. Good luck with your chick, please keep us posted!!
 
thanks for the advise. The wound is really small - hard to notice. I think it just got a hard peck on the back of the head by another hen. Its with the other chicks under the mother hen now......so I will see how it is in the morning. I hope it seems better, or is dead, because I will hate to kill the thing myself......but I will do what has to be done.
 
Ahh, I hope the little guys all right too. My baby's wounds were deep, on one side it almost looked like I could see brain or something smooth and white
sickbyc.gif
. Today, its pretty much scabbed over, one side looks very good and the other side is getting better. She may have some brain damage due to the wounds because she sure is goofy. Chases my hand around and she will lay on her side with her feet straight out until I ask her if she's all right, then jumps up and starts bouncing around. ~She's by far my favorite!!!!!
 
Sadly the chick was dead in the morning. The mother hen is a really bad mother. I think she actually was the one to attack her own chick and kick it out of the nest. I saw her doing it with another chick and in the afternoon that one was also dead.

So I took the last chicks and put them under a second broody hen who's eggs were just hatching. She accepted them well.
 
As sad as it may sound you can read alot about these poor chicks from others who have similar stories.
Usually, but not always, the chick had some kind of disease, or other major problem that would have had made its life painful and short.
Sometimes mother does know best as strange as the behavior seems.
(other times its just bad luck chick)
 
Other hens attack chicks not their own all the time. If I didn't stop some of them they would kill the chicks. My 18 week old pullets are very bad at that. I have some hens 2 years old that just don't like any thing. From a day old to 20 week old. You have to pay a closer attention to the hatched chicks if other eggs are hatching. I do find it odd the chick came out of the nest with mama not moving out also. Not all chickens are the same but most do not like chicks that are not theirs. I have a young cockerel and two pullets that are pretty good with the younger ones but the 18 week old red sexlinks are mean to all the younger ones.
 
Last edited:
So sorry to hear about the chicks. I am glad that your second broody took in the remaining chicks with open wings.
 
I have a psycho hen who tried to kill the 1st chick she hatched. Her & another broody were sharing a box & just happened to be in my kitchen when the 1st chick arrived. I walked into the kitchen to find both broodies up on the sides of the tote cackling like cra2y & a chick with a bloody hole in each side of it's head. I grabbed chick & dabbed cornstarch on the wounds to stop the bleeding, sat the baby back in the nest, grabbed BOTH broodies (didn't know which was the attempted murderer at that point) & returned them, upside down squawking the whole way, to the coop. Mean broody went right back to business as usual & forgot about sitting on eggs. Good broody kept trying to hatch the golf balls that are my decoy eggs in the nestboxes. A week later I brought Good Broody back in the house, stuffed a couple dud eggs under her for the night & gave her a hatching duck egg the next morning. She hatched out the duckling & I slipped her own banty baby back under her (the chick the other broody had tried to kill had come from this broody's egg) since it was now the same si2e as the duckling. She mothered them both & 2 days later I slipped 3 more ducklings under her when I came back from a swap. This momma would take anything I slid under her as long as it was the same si2e (or at least close) to what was already under her. Chickens can't count & she loved babies. Bad broody has not gone broody again since & good broody went to a new home to hatch out eggs for someone else. She currently has a brood at her new home.
 

Similar threads

Y
Baby chick just laying there
Replies
1
Views
339
TheOddOneOut
TheOddOneOut
G
    • Like
Did my hen accept chicks?
2
Replies
11
Views
819
greylee
G
A
    • Sad
3 day old chick - attacked by mum and thrown out of nest! HELP!
Replies
8
Views
1K
BigBlueHen53
BigBlueHen53
thecatumbrella
    • Like
Any tips on wrangling chicks for field trips?
Replies
3
Views
222
thecatumbrella
thecatumbrella
Corral Family
    • Sad
Chick flipping on back, not walking correctly
Replies
5
Views
805
Mill Chick
Mill Chick

New posts New threads Active threads

Back
Top Bottom