Aggressive pea hen

[JoeCole]

I have 4 pea hens, and all hatched out babies. The mother of two of the other hens I penned up to grow the chicks faster with flock feed because she hatched hers 2 weeks after the others hatched. They are all free range, but prefer to stay in the 100 by 50 foot fenced in corral with 4 pens that I leave open for them to feed in.
The unfortunate thing is that after 3 weeks locked in the pen, I let the mother with the youngest chicks out, and that mother picked a fight with her 4 year old daughter who also has chicks. The mother with the youngest chicks was killed within a minute leaving 4 three week old chicks orphaned.
My question is, should I let them out of the pen to integrate with the others, or do you think the other 3 mothers pea hens would kill them? The other mothers can be agressive at times, and have pecked at the penned up babies. Those babies keep crying and want to be with the others, but I'm not sure if letting them out is such a good idea or not. Please let me know what you think I should do?

 

[KsKingBee]

It is very unusual for peahens to kill another hen. I have some imprinted hens that are very bossy and rule the roost but I have never seen a hen kill another. I have seen hens steal babies from another hen but never kill them. I would run them together and watch carefully.

 

[JoeCole]

Ks, I judt let all the babies out with the free range, all the mothers attacked them repeatedly. Even the free range babies attacked them. I was able to trick them back into the pen, where they will stay until they are much bigger.
I think the broken neck was a freak accident. The mother that died was the aggresser, but as her and her 4 yr old daughter were fighting a 2 yr old peacock approached and I believe the distraction resulted in her death.

 

[JoeCole]

Ks, I was hoping that one of the momma peas would take these orphans, but they definitely want nothing to do with them. Thanks for reply.

 

[KsKingBee]

Ks, I was hoping that one of the momma peas would take these orphans, but they definitely want nothing to do with them. Thanks for reply.

I would keep them separated too. Peas are like kids and have different personalities. We are going through a problem with the older cocks attacking a yearling cock in the bullpen, but I think it is because he is defective from an accident when he was just a few months old. We turned him out to be a free-ranger.