Could hen still be broody immediately after hatching and killing all of her chicks???

[1cock2hens]

I wouldn't just write her off when it comes to future clutches. I had a hen kill all of her first chicks than the next 2 years successfully raise over 20 chicks without any help at all from me.

She even adopted chicks from dead hens and fostered them from very young ages

 

[Shadrach]

I have a black copper marans who recently went broody for the first time so I gave her 6 eggs. She successfully hatched 5 of them and then the next day she killed them all. When I found them she was still sitting on the nest because there were still two eggs under her that were laid by other hens a day or two before hatch day. I took those eggs from her so she got up out of the nest and paced around looking at her dead chicks while looking confused. I took the chicks and left the coop to go dispose of them, and when I came back a while later she was out “chickening” with the others like nothing happened, so it seemed as if she was totally fine and back to normal…except that she still kept sleeping in the nest at night. I figured it was just out of habit so I have been moving her to the roosting bars every single night since then but she’s still doing it. And not only that but she seems to have started plucking her chest feathers out again. Could she be broody again immediately after hatching eggs? Or could she STILL be broody even though she doesn’t sit during the day? Obviously I’m not going to give her any more eggs to hatch and so I would love to get her back to laying those beautiful chocolate brown eggs as soon as she is able, I’m not sure what to think or do at this point.

May I ask a strange question?
Do the other hens like/get on with the hen that killed her chicks?

 

[Mayonnaise83]

I agree there's no reason to risk her harming future chicks since you now have two proven good broodies. However, to defend your BCM for a moment, it's perfectly normal for a hen to appear "aggressive" to her new chicks as she teaches them to stay under her/near her for safety and warmth, since newly hatched chicks are completely innocent and clueless. I'm not saying she didn't do it. But before I knew better, I blamed some broodies for dead chicks and later realized they didn't do it.

Fair enough!! I’m very new to raising chicks with broodies (my first two clutches are only about 10 weeks old now) so I know I certainly have a lot to learn from future experience and from those of you who are well-seasoned. With my limited experience I was basing my title of “aggressive” off of what I had observed from watching the first two broodies with their chicks. They of course pecked at them and showed them who was boss when needed. This hen seemed MUCH more “aggressive” compared to the first two. But having such a small sample size could obviously end up leading me to an incorrect conclusion. I definitely appreciate your advice and perspective! I love to learn and hope to be as knowledgeable as many of you all are some day.

 

[Mayonnaise83]

I wouldn't just write her off when it comes to future clutches. I had a hen kill all of her first chicks than the next 2 years successfully raise over 20 chicks without any help at all from me.

She even adopted chicks from dead hens and fostered them from very young ages

Very cool! I’ll def keep that in mind!

 

[Mayonnaise83]

May I ask a strange question?
Do the other hens like/get on with the hen that killed her chicks?

Yes I think so! I haven’t noticed anything outside of typical pecking order behaviors towards her. She’s a very sweet hen.

 

[Mayonnaise83]

After considering the info you all gave me I decided I am going to block off the nesting boxes for several nights in a row and see if that will be enough to get her back to roosting on the bars. Thanks again for all of your help!

 

[Mayonnaise83]

Well with the roosting boxes blocked off she was up on the roosting bars with the rest of the flock tonight. My guess is 5 or 6 days of this and she’ll be back in the habit.

 

[Marcy74]

Great info…thanks!!

I’m not 100% positive because I didn’t see it happen. However I’m probably about 98% positive and here’s my reasoning:

I did observe her with a couple chicks on hatch day and I remember thinking that she was sometimes kinda harsh with her pecking/scolding when they came out from under her, so my assumption is that she continued to be too aggressive with them.

Also, when I found them dead they were in the nest with her still, which may or may not mean anything…I’m just thinking another critter would have taken off with one or more of them, or at least would have flung them around a bit.

Also, for the first time ever, I just recently hatched two clutches with two broody hens for and none of the rest of the flock bothered them, so my assumption is that they would act the same with this second round of chicks, but i suppose you never know. And the other two mamas and their chicks were in their own separate housing and so didn’t have access to the new mama and chicks.

I figure even if I’m wrong I already have two tried-and-true mamas that I can use to hatch chicks in the future so there’s no need to use this one in the future.

Id try to observe the other girls if she or another goes broody again. One of my buffs always gets broody. The other girls were brutal to her because they wanted that nesting box. They pecked her comb bloody. Another hen may have killed yours if she got up for water. I moved her to a different box. She never hatched eggs successfully and stayed broody for an additional week after they should have been hatched.