Feel kind of bad and mean.

[chickened]

I have this hen... Maria (named after Maria Schriber) she is a dark cornish. She is a great broody, horrible mother. She hatched 8 of 9 eggs today. I took her babies away. Every time she keeps them they all die for one reason or another.

Anyone else ever had to do this? I usually do not feel bad for my birds but this hen is one of my favorites.

 

[chickenzoo]

I just had to take a bantam hen off her eggs because after terrible rains and wind, her nest box flooded up to her chin and she refused to get off her nest. She was soaked to the skin and chilled.... And would have drowned..... After I warmed her up she was Very po'ed at me so I gave her a egg in her recovery box. I'm still getting the stink eye from her....

 

[hiddenflock]

Sadly, sometimes it has to be done.
Trust me, you'd have felt worse if you had let her keep them and the chicks had died.

 

[chickened]

I know, I have tried penning her where the chicks stay safe and she still ends up killing them and then if I let her out she loses about a chick a day. It just bugs me to see her sit on the nest and act as if nothing happened. It takes about a week before she abandons hope.