Broody hen pecked open egg and killed chick? Help!

[lillypurrs23]

So we have a cochin that went broody recently. She went broody in the middle of July, too, but it was too hot. Then she went broody again. So we got her eggs-8 of them. She's been really faithful, for having sat on a fake one for a few weeks until we got her eggs to sit on for another 21 days. But my mom called me at work today and told me that she had pecked open an egg and killed the chick, and ate the shell. So I'm sitting here watching the hen waiting for my mom to get an incubator 40 miles away. She keeps going to look under the egg and i keep stopping her so she doesn't do it again, because I'm pretty sure I heard a chick pecking at an egg.
Why is she doing this? We're going to get them into an incubator asap. But she was one of the only ones raised by a broody mom, and I heard cochins are great for brooding. Her mother was a cuckoo maran and was fantastic. She's around the same age as when the maran went broody as well, 9 months.
So I'm just wondering what made her do this... It's so weird.

 

[flgardengirl]

It could be due to inexperience as a mom or due to the fact that there was something wrong with that chick. Sometimes momma hens do that if there is something wrong with the chick. I had a good silkie mom kill a chick and the that chick had a audible click click when it breathed. I read somewhere that in natural circumstances that some kinds of birds may do that to prevent disease to the rest of their flock.
I would go ahead and incubate the rest of the eggs just in case, if you are really wanting babies. Keep track of your dates so you know when to lock them down.
Sometimes sucky first time moms turn out to be really good ones the second time around. I have an olive egger hen who deserted her first baby after a few weeks. We had to raise it alone. The second time she had babies she had 16 and we gave her 2 more. That was over a month ago and she still has every one of them and is being a great mom. You just never know with those silly broodies lol.

 

[lillypurrs23]

Maybe that's why. Idk. Lol my mom heard peeping then after it was killed we haven't heard any. But we have the incubator heating up now.