Best hen for chick, her mom kills babies!

[lbogner]

Hello, thanks for reading my question. I have a little dilemma here. I have two Cochin hens who broody together. The first chick born to then was killed and I thought another hen in that flock killed the baby so I separated the 2 Broodys and their next and waited. 5 more chicks were born after that and are thriving. One of the broodyz seems to raise the chicks and the other continues to sit on eggs. 4 more chicks hatched over the course of a week and I have gone out to find each of them pecked in the head and dead. The original 5 are doing fine. I would have taken all the eggs but kept thinking there was no way anymore would hatch... wrong! They kept slowly hatching and being killed. So yesterday I checked all the eggs, one was pipped and chirping so I took it inside and hatched in an incubator. I also took all viable eggs and replaced them With duds so no more killing! I hope! I was planning to take the incubator hatched chick and sneak her in with the broody Cochins tonight. But then, I started thinking to try putting the Cochin/ incubator hatched chick in with a broody Silkie who hatched her chicks about a week ago. All the Silkie hens in that pen take care of the chicks. None have been killed. Who do you think would be the best choice to try adopting the incubator hatched chick with ? Cochins/ or Silkies? I’m thinking about going and sticking this 12 hour old chick in with the Silkie hen. Thanks for your input!

 

[RoostersAreAwesome]

I would not put any more chicks with the cochins if they’ve been killing them.

 

[Yardmom]

Just found this. Did you try putting the chick with the Silkies? Did it go well or did they think of it as an intruder?

 

[Sensationalsilkies]

Hello, thanks for reading my question. I have a little dilemma here. I have two Cochin hens who broody together. The first chick born to then was killed and I thought another hen in that flock killed the baby so I separated the 2 Broodys and their next and waited. 5 more chicks were born after that and are thriving. One of the broodyz seems to raise the chicks and the other continues to sit on eggs. 4 more chicks hatched over the course of a week and I have gone out to find each of them pecked in the head and dead. The original 5 are doing fine. I would have taken all the eggs but kept thinking there was no way anymore would hatch... wrong! They kept slowly hatching and being killed. So yesterday I checked all the eggs, one was pipped and chirping so I took it inside and hatched in an incubator. I also took all viable eggs and replaced them With duds so no more killing! I hope! I was planning to take the incubator hatched chick and sneak her in with the broody Cochins tonight. But then, I started thinking to try putting the Cochin/ incubator hatched chick in with a broody Silkie who hatched her chicks about a week ago. All the Silkie hens in that pen take care of the chicks. None have been killed. Who do you think would be the best choice to try adopting the incubator hatched chick with ? Cochins/ or Silkies? I’m thinking about going and sticking this 12 hour old chick in with the Silkie hen. Thanks for your input!

Silkie hen for sure!!!!

 

[Babbling brook]

I have similar. 3 silkie hens and a d'uccle. All broody. 2 hatched. One killed after a day the other very injured. Both appeared very healthy. If it survives wondering how and when to indroduce the new one. I think the d'uccle is the murder as the silkies are proven moms, and the d'uccle had blood on her. All are still broody.

Can the d'uccle ever be a mom? She was shunned from the nesting box shortly after the hatching. So wonder if jealousy caused the murder.

Any advice? I have a separate coop built for this time of situation. I was planning on separating them earlier but couldn't find help getting the thing built. The one chick seems OK in a brooder box. The d'uccle is in chicken jail to break her brooding. Thinking the keep one silkie broody to adopt the survived once the chick wounds are healed. They will be in the separate coop.I Obviously, if passes will break all of them. Any thoughts on that plan?

 

[TheAlrightyGina]

Apparently, especially with new broodies, they can sometimes be startled by the appearance of the chicks and attack them. It's one of the reasons you don't just want to put chicks with a broody hen and assume nature will work it out. But it's really up to you if you want to give a hen another chance if she's done this. I had a broody recently (BCM) kill 4 of her 10 foster chicks. No idea why other than that there might have been too much space in the nest box for them to get out from under her and having things running around in front of her face put her into attack mode. It was terrible finding them like that but just in case I took the rest from her even though she was treating them like she should. In my case I have plenty of proven broodies, I just decided to give her a chance since she'd been sitting on a clutch (duds) for the longest so I probably won't try with her again. I had two other broodies (an OE and an Australorp) with foster chicks at the same time, and the OE wasn't violent but obviously wasn't interested in being a mom (just kept running from the chicks that were trying to get under her after diligently sitting on them all night). However, the Australorp took everybody's babies. I lost two after that, but it wasn't her fault (one had a navel defect and one went down super fast due to pasting up). Crazy watching a hen with 19 chicks under her, but she pancakes like a boss!

I guess what I'm trying to say with this rambling ~2am post is that it's a process. Sometimes it's a horror show, and sometimes it's beautiful. As chicken guardians we've just gotta be diligent and do our best to make sure we can intercede if necessary and give both potential broody and her potential brood the best chance at a healthy happy life that we can.

 

[neo71665]

Silikies with full size chicks always makes me laugh. They are great mommas but when they are bossing "babies" around that are the same size as them I just get a giggle. Real funny at night when the chicks are trying to get under her at night and the poor momma is trying to cover them up.

 

[lbogner]

I would not put any more chicks with the cochins if they’ve been killing them.

Thank you, I did try putting them with the Silkies and it was a fail. I’ve kept them separate and they are doing well. Thank you so much!

 

[lbogner]

Just found this. Did you try putting the chick with the Silkies? Did it go well or did they think of it as an intruder?

Thank you so much for replying, I somehow missed the replies. I did try putting the Cochin chicks with the Silkies and the mama silkie did not accept them. They wouldn’t stay underneath her, She pinned them in a corner and if they tried to come out she’d peck them. Not severely aggressive, but I had a feeling it could get worse . I have had them in a separate brooder and will try integrating them with their own kind when they are older. Thanks so much!