Chick found dead in nest box

[Fitchiefour]

Hello all- I’m new to the forums & new to letting broody mama hatch and raise her own babies. We had 13 chicks hatch and all looked healthy when I put them into the coop last night, until I found one dead in the coop today when gathering eggs around 11. It’s leg stripped of down and injury underneath the leg (pics below)
I’m wondering what might have gone wrong ? Is the wound possibly post death? Would mom peck at the baby not moving? Did it get pushed out from under mom and become too cold over night? Another chicken peck at it while going in to lay eggs?
I don’t want to lose any more of my precious grandchicks if I can prevent it :,(

a little backround info: Mom just started coming out of the coop with the babies a few days ago and they’ve been happily pecking and scratching at medicated chick feed in the covered outdoor run. At night I do let the other grown chickens that have been free ranging into the run/coop, but they choose to sleep in another part of the coop away from mom/babies.

I apologize if this is not the correct section- there’s so many threads and categories.
This post has been edited to try and get to the point a bit quicker

 

[TheDuckGuy]

Hello all- I’m new to the forums and new to letting broody mama hatch and raise her own babies. We had 13 chicks hatch and all looked healthy when I put them into the coop last night, until I found one dead in the coop today when gathering eggs around 11. a little backround info: Mom just started coming out of the coop with the babies a few days ago and they’ve been happily pecking and scratching at medicated chick feed in the covered outdoor run. At night I do let the other grown chickens that have been free ranging into the run/coop, but they choose to sleep in another part of the coop away from mom/babies. Upon inspecting I found the chick had one leg was stripped of down. It must have died sometime over night of morning because it wasn’t completely rigor but flies had already begun to lay eggs in what looks like a wound that went underneath the leg- I will attach pics- I’m just wondering what might have gone wrong ? Is the wound possibly post death? Would mom peck at the baby not moving? Did it get pushed out from under mom and become too cold over night?
I don’t want to lose any more of my precious grandchicks if I can prevent it :,(

I apologize if this is not the correct section- there’s so many threads and categories.

I don't have time to read all so I'm not 100% what is fully going on but looks like mom or another hen or roo killed it

 

[3speckled3]

Hello all- I’m new to the forums & new to letting broody mama hatch and raise her own babies. We had 13 chicks hatch and all looked healthy when I put them into the coop last night, until I found one dead in the coop today when gathering eggs around 11. It’s leg stripped of down and injury underneath the leg (pics below)
I’m wondering what might have gone wrong ? Is the wound possibly post death? Would mom peck at the baby not moving? Did it get pushed out from under mom and become too cold over night? Another chicken peck at it while going in to lay eggs?
I don’t want to lose any more of my precious grandchicks if I can prevent it :,(

a little backround info: Mom just started coming out of the coop with the babies a few days ago and they’ve been happily pecking and scratching at medicated chick feed in the covered outdoor run. At night I do let the other grown chickens that have been free ranging into the run/coop, but they choose to sleep in another part of the coop away from mom/babies.

I apologize if this is not the correct section- there’s so many threads and categories.
This post has been edited to try and get to the point a bit quicker

It was most likely killed by another hen or maybe a rooster. I may be wrong, but it's a possibility. It's very common for some hens to kill chicks that don't belong to them. If possible, I'd recommend moving mom and her babies to an area the others can't have access to.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

I'd more think about a mouse causing it

 

[Fitchiefour]

Thank you all for the quick replies, I appreciate your time. I’m going to separate mom & babies from the other chickens so they can be in their own space & go from there. I put a baby monitor out where they will be so I can hopefully hear or see something and intervene before this can occur again.

 

[Swbertrand1]

+1 on moving a mother and her chicks to a separated section of the run/coop. A mother hen will be protective of the chicks, but only to a point - i.e. she can't protect the bulk of them AND put herself in harm's way.
Mother hens have been known to boot a straggling/struggling chick out of the group, but I've never run across a mother actually injuring/killing a chick. It is possible however.
Finally, with 13 or so chicks, that's a lot of chicks for any hen, and maybe she wasn't able to keep up with one that got into a spot where Momma hen couldn't protect her...

 

[MarshyRooster]

Looks like the work of mama, another hen or a roo.
I'm sorry for your loss. You seem to be doing a great job handling it.
Although there's a possibility that the mama hen killed it... so I'd be pretty cautious about putting the chicks and the mama together. The monitor will probably take care of that, though.
Good luck!