Broody kills the first baby? - please help quickly!!!

[Dinosaur Village Keeper]

Can you keep them warm? Heating pad? Heat lamp? Some sort of heater etc.. If you can and they’re still good you might get a few to hatch. Better than nothing. I would either get rid of that hen or don’t let her set again. Regardless of age that’s screwy behavior and has nothing to do with lack of maturity.

She was definitely one of my favorite girls before this.

 

[DallasChickyMomma]

I had this literal thing happen this morning. I am fortunate to have an incubator. So the next question is how do you deal with the mom after you take the eggs?

 

[Banana01]

Well, so what did you do with the eggs then? Mothers communicate with the eggs long befire you see them hatched and she is not some homicidal hen intent on murdering her babies. Interfering at the final hours of hatching is something I would never do.

 

[roosterhavoc]

Well, so what did you do with the eggs then? Mothers communicate with the eggs long befire you see them hatched and she is not some homicidal hen intent on murdering her babies. Interfering at the final hours of hatching is something I would never do.

If all things are done correctly like keeping a hen separate from other birds and given privacy and it still happens it’s the hen. That kind of behavior doesn’t happen often but it does happen. The hen will peck the chicks on the head/back/wings as it’a hatching. She’s not helping the chick out of the egg she’s actually killing them on purpose.

 

[roosterhavoc]

I had this literal thing happen this morning. I am fortunate to have an incubator. So the next question is how do you deal with the mom after you take the eggs?

If you want to keep her then keep her but I wouldn’t allow her to set on eggs again. I personally kill any hen that shows this kind of behavior.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Chickens do practically everything by instinct. The vast majority get it right. But every now and then you get one that just doesn't get it right. It might be a broody hen that kills her chicks. It might be a rooster that doesn't take care of his flock. Maybe a hen lays eggs at night instead of daylight hours. Pullets do that a lot but their instincts should soon straighten them out. Some hens release two yolks instead of one so you get a hen that lays a lot of double yolked eggs. All these are flaws, there is something wrong with the chicken.

It may be genetic and can be passed on to their offspring. Or it may just be something specific to her. I don't allow these to breed, I don't want that in my flock.

I would never let that hen hatch again. I would never try to incubate her eggs. I'm really sorry you got a defective hen.

 

[Fallenone05]

Well, so what did you do with the eggs then? Mothers communicate with the eggs long befire you see them hatched and she is not some homicidal hen intent on murdering her babies. Interfering at the final hours of hatching is something I would never do.

Some hens commit infanticide on every single batch of eggs they go broody with. A friend of mine had a hen who consistently went broody then killed every single chick every single time. Some hens *cannot* have chicks, even if their instincts say to raise babies.

 

[aart]

So what did you end up doing @Catbunnychick ?
Did you see the suggestion here:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/please-help.1467059/post-24441163

 

[Dinosaur Village Keeper]

So what did you end up doing @Catbunnychick ?
Did you see the suggestion here:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/please-help.1467059/post-24441163

I brought the eggs inside. I had to grab onto her neck repeatedly to keep her from killing the baby as it hatched. I brought the one in and since no other eggs were chirping I let her be for about an hour. She sat perfectly calm because there were no chirps. I grabbed the eggs and made the most ridiculous incubator out of a heating pad, wet paper towels and a heat lamp (which is also covering the live ones. One more hatched in the middle of the night and another this morning. One has had a tiny crack in it since I think around 6am. Can’t be positive though. More than 12 hours and nothing else has happened. Much chirping and movement though. Broody mama sits on nothing. I’m so mad at her but I know she didn’t mean for this! So then I feel worse. I’m terribly depressed and I feel like I’m doing the wrong thing at every turn. Mama had a pretty nice set up with her own little run so I don’t think this happened because I didn’t provide for her properly. I’ll attach a pic. I am hoping so much that egg will all of the sudden start hatching, but I just don’t see it.

 

[Weetamoo93]

I just had a first time broody do the same to her first chick. Waiting to see what she'll do with the final two eggs now that I've read your thread...