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

[Dinosaur Village Keeper]

I do not believe for a second that chickens are prone to commit infanticide randomly, there is an environmental factor involved and it is likely nutritional deficit of some kind.

Your coop is really nice. Does she ever get the chance to get off the eggs and out of the coop to run a bit, or is she shut in? The feed looks powdery. This type of reaction has to be from stress, either environmental or nutritionally deficit mental breakdown.

Of the species of animals that commonly commit infanticide mostly are non-avion. They are common for males to kill the offspring, like lions do. Or if the females kill the offspring, it is competitve with other females.

Here is a similar case of a bird species doing it, and it is from lack of food.
View attachment 2668719

No it's not your fault, but if you want to fix the problem, introduce more varied feed. Maybe offer a second type of food to choose from.

If she is locked in the coop 24-7, put in a new type of base of sand for the floor that she can scratch around in and get some grit and shells.

She was never locked in the coop. The door to her coop was opened at sunrise every day. We made her a special run just for her and the babies that is 10x10. No access for any other birds. That feed is organic starter feed and is the best quality that can be obtained in my area. I daily gave her things such as zucchin, watermelon, and tomatoes. I cooked her a scrambled egg every other day. I gave her scratch occasionally as a treat and to encourage her to eat. There were also organic pellets placed in her run as well as fresh filtered water. In addition, most every day I opened her run door so that she could run out in her fenced acre to free range as normal (which was very quick, especially towards the end). I put a dust bath in her run, but she usually wanted to come out of that area during her breaks and dust bathe in the 3 huge garden beds that are now just dust baths for her and her 7 sisters and 1 bother. I strongly disagree with your assessment of what happened with her. I don’t know much about chickens, but I do know that I spare zero expense giving them anything and everything I believe is best for them.

 

[Banana01]

She was never locked in the coop. The door to her coop was opened at sunrise every day. We made her a special run just for her and the babies that is 10x10. No access for any other birds. That feed is organic starter feed and is the best quality that can be obtained in my area. I daily gave her things such as zucchin, watermelon, and tomatoes. I cooked her a scrambled egg every other day. I gave her scratch occasionally as a treat and to encourage her to eat. There were also organic pellets placed in her run as well as fresh filtered water. In addition, most every day I opened her run door so that she could run out in her fenced acre to free range as normal (which was very quick, especially towards the end). I put a dust bath in her run, but she usually wanted to come out of that area during her breaks and dust bathe in the 3 huge garden beds that are now just dust baths for her and her 7 sisters and 1 bother. I strongly disagree with your assessment of what happened with her. I don’t know much about chickens, but I do know that I spare zero expense giving them

Please. Your love for your chickens shows it's heartwarming to see, even under the circumstances. Do not say you don't know much about chickens. Everything you are doing is way above and beyond and comes from your heart and a desire to make them as comfortable as you can. If you read my thread, I am asking for information on her habits the past brood and nowhere offered any assessments. I am just as dumbfounded as you are.

But having read this new information, maybe someone else can offer other explanations. I was going to offer that maybe adding some vitamin supplement to her water would help.

However, with this info I am left wondering if you are not giving too much extra treats.

 

[Banana01]

I do not like the idea of feeding scrambled eggs to a well chicken, especially during brood. Anyone else have an opinion on this? Maybe she became trained to the taste of eggs. I'm sorry this happened to you. I wish your next brood more success.

 

[Dinosaur Village Keeper]

Please. Your love for your chickens shows it's heartwarming to see, even under the circumstances. Do not say you don't know much about chickens. Everything you are doing is way above and beyond and comes from your heart and a desire to make them as comfortable as you can. If you read my thread, I am asking for information on her habits the past brood and nowhere offered any assessments. I am just as dumbfounded as you are.

But having read this new information, maybe someone else can offer other explanations. I was going to offer that maybe adding some vitamin supplement to her water would help.

However, with this info I am left wondering if you are not giving too much extra treats.

I know you are trying hard to blame this on me, but I did NOTHING wrong. I just read an article that said first time mamas injuring their babies is not very rare. It also stated that they can easily become very spooked by the peeps of the babies because they have never seen a baby before (exactly what my girl did). One should always be ready to remove the babies as they hatch so mama doesn’t injure or kill them. Plain and simple that is what happened. I did nothing wrong. I will link the article in case anyone else is in my situation. I will not be doing the potential reintroduction that is mentioned because my heart cannot handle the possible consequences. My heart breaks for my girl that now sits on an empty nest waiting for babies to come that I simply cannot give her. And it breaks for the little baby stabbed to death as it first emerged in life.
https://www.hobbyfarms.com/when-a-good-broody-hen-becomes-a-moody-mama/

 

[Dinosaur Village Keeper]

I will not be responding to or reading anything else that banana whatever his user name is, writes. What a cruel person to hurt someone that is already hurting. Way worse than my mama chicken who injured with no ill intent whatsoever.

 

[aart]

I do not believe for a second that chickens are prone to commit infanticide randomly

It's not common, but it does happen.
Some are just not quite wired right.

Anyone else have an opinion on this? Maybe she became trained to the taste of eggs.

Balderdash. Nonsense.
Feeding egg shells or cooked egg will not 'train' them to eat whole intact eggs in the nest.

 

[DallasChickyMomma]

I lost 3 to this hen who was brooding these chicks. The shells were completely gone, as well as any debris usually associated with hatching. The chick was wet, but missing feathers where she had pecked them off, and some of the skin as well. My hen has free range of 2 acres, she was allowed to brood where she chose, and was undisturbed and well fed. I personally think some hens just don't understand, or in this hen's case, I think the smell of the open egg was too much to resist. I took 5 from her, and she is pretty nonchalant about it. 4 have hatched, and the final is pipped, on the verge of zipping.

 

[Dinosaur Village Keeper]

I lost 3 to this hen who was brooding these chicks. The shells were completely gone, as well as any debris usually associated with hatching. The chick was wet, but missing feathers where she had pecked them off, and some of the skin as well. My hen has free range of 2 acres, she was allowed to brood where she chose, and was undisturbed and well fed. I personally think some hens just don't understand, or in this hen's case, I think the smell of the open egg was too much to resist. I took 5 from her, and she is pretty nonchalant about it. 4 have hatched, and the final is pipped, on the verge of zipping.

I’m so glad you saved some of them! It’s such a tough thing to go though. I’m still upset everyday about the first one being killed by her, just able to forgive her for what she did, knowing that it sometimes happens and she’s not some evil chicken! Thank you for confirmation than we did nothing wrong!

 

[Dinosaur Village Keeper]

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...

What ended up happening with your chick?

 

[Weetamoo93]

What ended up happening with your chick?

One of the two eggs broke yesterday and the chick was deceased. I had noticed her checking under herself, not pecking or anything, and straightening her nest. I just checked this morning and I think the last one died in egg as well. I couldn't hear movement like the night before.

All around failed hatch, which could have mishandling errors on my part as a novice. Broody is giving up naturally, though, and leaving her nest more frequently and longer periods.

Now I need another hen to go broody or this one to try again after a small recoup.