Did she kill her own chick? Incompetant mother hen!

[chickened]

Sounds more like a rat or weasel. Yhey will slip under a hen and grab a chick in a heartbeat. No shortage of rats here in Oregon.

Tam'ra of Rainbow Vortex :

Yesterday, my broody silver penciled wyandotte hatched out a darling little grey-brown mutt chick. I was delighted since my dominant roo is black and I always want more colors... I was so excited to see how it would turn out. But today its decapitated body was found with its mother in the nesting box with the four other unhatched eggs she sat on and one new egg laid by another hen. She must have left the nest for that other egg to appear. So what do you think? What is she guilty of- criminal negligence or murder?
I will not be keeping this hen. If I had known she would not care for it I would have slipped it under my gold laced broody.​

 

[HorseFeatherz NV]

Quote:
You are very correct.

It is natural and part of being a chicken, that they all clean up broken eggs. To leave a broken egg, would attract predators who could possibly steal a whole clutch of eggs. Doing so will not cause a chicken to become a true egg eater.


A "true" egg eater, will go into a nest, break the egg with her beak on purpose to eat the egg.

 

[dennis k]

i cant say your hen killed her baby, but i just hatched out some chicks and my thai silkie mix not only killed one of her babies but she killed 2 of them by picking at their heads till they were dead, well she killed one the other was so badly hurt i had no choice but to put it down, i am a hunter and was brought to tears when i found the chicks,( from food to family.) i think she knew something was wrong with the chick and wasn't able to communicate with it and saw it as a threat to the others, a mothers instinct at work i guess, hopefully she wont kill any more. hope that helps.. first time dad.. DENNIS K.