Chickens killed the babies!

[Sugarmonster30]

I'm pretty upset. We started with four fertile eggs that were placed under a broody hen. Everything seemed fine until the broody hen kept getting up several times a day and letting other hens lay eggs in her nest. Eventually we lost two eggs....one was pecked and eaten and the second looked like it collapsed but you could see the developing baby parts. We hoped that the broody hen would get protective but she never did. Finally on schedule one of the two remaining eggs hatched and a perfect baby was born. It layed under the mother and we went to bed. Next morning I check on them and I see the other chickens fighting over the body. Another hen layed an egg in the nest already. The mother hen was out and joined the fight over the body. We took out the last egg but don't hear any sound from it. My daughter is refusing to let the hen sit on it.
Is it typical for the broody hen to act so uncaring? She would always go back to her eggs and sit on them but not protect them.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Some broodies will fight to keep other hens from laying in their nest, I've had eggs broken from that fighting. That's pretty rare though. Most of my broodies allow other hens to join them in the nest to lay eggs. That's why I mark the eggs and check under the broody after the others have laid their eggs for the day to remove those new eggs.

I’ve had only one hen in all my years that would not allow another hen to join her in a nest to lay an egg with her. That hen was not broody and never went broody. She was just a nest hog. I ate her mainly for that trait. It was behavior disruptive to the flock.

I’ve never had a problem with another hen eating the eggs out from under a broody. That would be an egg eater and she would eat a regular egg in a regular nest, whether there was a broody on the nest or not. That does not sound like it is your problem.

Practically any hen will eat and egg that is already broken. That is not an egg eater. An egg eater is where a hen purposely opens an egg to eat it.

I’m more unsure of the broody joining in the fight over the chick’s body. Chickens are scavengers and cannibals. They will eat about anything. But that hen had an egg back in her nest. I’d have thought she’d be back on the nest.

I have had a broody hen kill about half her chicks after they hatched, but raise the rest. She did not try to eat them. I don’t know why she did that or what happened. I never did allow her to hatch any more.

I’ve had eggs just break in the nest. Looking at them they were extremely thin-shelled. I suspect the hen herself may have broken them just turning them they were so fragile.

Obviously I don’t know what happened. Some chicks don’t make it after hatch for whatever reason. They may not absorb the yolk or have a birth defect, but that is really pretty rare. It’s possible the eggs and the chick were killed by the broody defending her nest. Maybe a rat opening those eggs and killed the chick. Maybe you got stuck with a really lousy broody hen that did that herself. What you are describing is not normal at all, not all happening in one hatch, although in isolation different things can happen.

I don’t see from you post that you did anything wrong. I would not give up on broody hens, but I would never let that hen try to hatch eggs again.

 

[Sugarmonster30]

I wish I had removed the baby chick after it hatched......but what's done is done. We ended up putting the last egg back under the hen because we couldn't keep it warm. If it makes it to hatching we will just remove the egg to a bin with a heat lamp.

We live in the desert and it is heating up to 100 in the middle of the day. I was happy that the broody would come out for food (especially watermelon) and water frequently. They have free feed all the time. We have one chicken who has caught mice a few times. I'm wandering if their protein needs are more than the layer feed is giving them.

Also, my son may be the instigator......he is three and would go out to the coop and use a toy to stand on to reach in the box and steal eggs....then open the door for the chickens to come out. Of course he would proceed to throw the eggs on the ground and watch the hens eat them. After numerous discipline failures and egg demises I took away his toy and put a lock on the boxes. We make sure to check for eggs several times a day. A few times we have seen an egg eaten......not often. So it may be the eggs eaten had cracks already? Either way, perhaps that encouraged the violence towards the broody's eggs and baby chick.