Adult hens pecking and attacking new baby chicks. They severely injured one. Advice?

[Evette_23]

My four adult hens are pecking at my four new baby chicks. They injured one so bad that her skull is exposed. I removed the chicks from the pen. Any advice on how to get the hens to stop attacking them? Or how to go about introducing the chicks again?

 

[Beauty99]

My four adult hens are pecking at my four new baby chicks. They injured one so bad that her skull is exposed. I removed the chicks from the pen. Any advice on how to get the hens to stop attacking them? Or how to go about introducing the chicks again?

Once i bought 9 chicks but 8 of them die and only one left which grew till 2-3 month and then i bought 4 chickens i put them all together because they were bigger they attacked my chick i was afraid that something happenes to her but luckily she is fine now it’s been year and she became a great chicken but if your chicks are so small put them in a different place they might kill them cause they hate stangers especially when they are small , put them in different places till they grow enough to defend themselves hope this is helpful

 

[Hensndoes]

How old were the chicks you put in the pen? Adult hens will kill babies. There are threads on here about introducing that will help you. It's a gradual process and the chicks need to be older

 

[tuesdaylove]

Adult hens only accept chicks if the chicks were hatched and raised within the group. This is why I now only use hens to incubate eggs and hatch chicks, they are outside from day one and slowly work their way into the flock under the mom's protection. If you're integrating strange chicks into the flock, you'll have to wait until they're nearly grown.

 

[aart]

How old were the chicks you put in the pen?

Good question.

Adult hens only accept chicks if the chicks were hatched and raised within the group.

Not true.
I've integrated a bunch of chicks, the older they are the harder it is.
Now I brood in coop 1 week after incubator hatch, then integration with main flock starts at 4 weeks. https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/integrating-new-birds-at-4-weeks-old.72603/
Works great!

I still follow the...
Integration Basics:

It's all about territory and resources(space/food/water).
Existing birds will almost always attack new ones to defend their resources.
Understanding chicken behaviors is essential to integrating new birds into your flock.

Confine new birds within sight but physically segregated from older/existing birds for several weeks, so they can see and get used to each other but not physically interact.

In adjacent runs, spread scratch grains along the dividing mesh, best if mesh is just big enough for birds to stick their head thru, so they get used to eating together.

The more space, the better. Birds will peck to establish dominance, the pecked bird needs space to get away. As long as there's no copious blood drawn and/or new bird is not trapped/pinned down and beaten unmercilessly, let them work it out. Every time you interfere or remove new birds, they'll have to start the pecking order thing all over again.

Multiple feed/water stations. Dominance issues are most often carried out over sustenance, more stations lessens the frequency of that issue.

Places for the new birds to hide 'out of line of sight'(but not a dead end trap) and/or up and away from any bully birds. Roosts, pallets or boards leaned up against walls or up on concrete blocks, old chairs tables, branches, logs, stumps out in the run can really help. Lots of diversion and places to 'hide' instead of bare wide open run.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Hi, Evette welcome to the forum.

If you can tell us the age of the chicks, the number of the adults, and the size in feet or meters of your coops/runs we can offer more specific advice. Photos can help a lot. The more you can tell us the better we can help.

Many of us raise young chicks with the flock but there are requirements and techniques to make that work. Just tossing young chicks in with adults hens, especially in a confined space, can cause serious problems.