Broody hen did she kill her baby chick?

[JonBoyWhat]

I have a 1 year old Silver Phoenix hen I ordered from Efowl go broody and I discovered at 1:30 am 5/2/2012 a dead chick in the nest I thought maybe she purposely killed it? I base this determination on the fact that i noticed my hen pecking the egg, I just figured she was helping the chick out son I left only to come back to a dead baby. I did however hear the baby chick peeping so I am for sure It was living at the time that I discovered what was going on. Is this a big problem, and if it is what should I do?

 

[SpiritedFarm]

Sorry for your loss.
Hard to know what happened. Did the chick have any obvious wounds on it?
Are there more eggs?

 

[JonBoyWhat]

Thank you for your reply. Unfortanately as the chick was hatching fire ants had been eating at the baby so I removed the dead chick so i could discard, and moved the hen and other eggs to a safer place.

 

[SpiritedFarm]

Oh No!
Best of luck with the rest of the hatch!

 

[Nsampsel]

Sounds like momma was actually trying to protect baby by eating the ants???

 

[JonBoyWhat]

It's going great now I have seen two babys pop out from under her so she is doing a good job. I will try to post some pics when all of them are done being hatched. Thanks guys.

 

[SpiritedFarm]

Great to hear! Looking forward to the pics!