Hatching with broody - will other hens/rooster kill chicks?

[dkjolly13]

After waiting a year for my 2 young pullets & young Rooster to make a few baby chicks the time came with tragity !I went out to feed them and discovered 3 dead baby chicks !We noticed our nesting box had mother hen and the other hen both inside the box.Not sure what happened.We brought 3 eggs inside,one had a whole & a baby chick trying to come out.We have them in our basement in an aquarium with heat light on.The baby hatched out but has a red bubble attatched to it's behind ?It is laying down,moving but not up and walking.We have a small water dish in with it.HELP !!!

 

[farmlife]

I had a broody hen in the coop with a rooster and two other hens last night. In the morning when I went in, there was a dead chick on the floor very beat up and flattened. I moved the hen and the nest to my garage where she could finish hatching her chicks in peace. I'd never had this happen before. Would it be the rooster or the hens that did this? My other roo was very protective of his chicks so I never gave a thought to having this rooster around. He's never been aggressive before. Also, what is a good age to let chicks free range with the mother hen? I let my last batch out at 6 weeks and about 2 weeks later one disapeared right out of my fenced back yard.

 

[heybarb]

I have successfully hatched chicks with a broody hen in the chicken coop with the other chickens on 3 separate occasions. I am always very watchful - keeping an eye on the mama, her babies and the other chickens - especially when the chicks are really young. I have seen my BO hen go after the babies - but more as a warning peck than anything else. The rest of the flock leave the mama and her chicks alone.

 

[roughagate]

I have been raising bearded Silkies for several years and have always had loving Roos help with the raising of youngsters. A pair just hatched 11 eggs, some hers, some other hens. Everything was fine until yesterday when I came home to find a dead fluffy chick. Everyone else was fine. I thought well, maybe the Roo became a bit too anxious over breeding and killed the chick by accident. A storm was coming in tonight so I was helping mom collect her youngsters in her nest when to my surprise my sweet gentle Roo grabbed a chick in his mouth and began to shake it. I yelled at him. He dropped the limp chick and I grabbed it. For an instant I thought it was dead but it began to move. I grabbed several other chicks and placed them inside in my brooder. The rest I left with mom who is a perfect mother. I am still in shock.

 

[roughagate]

So out of the eleven chicks hatched, 6 are in the house under a heat lamp and four are still with mom (one was killed by dad) and everything is copacetic. Daddy Roo was feeding the chicks this morning and being a regular concerned parent. Maybe he just couldn't handle so many. Has anyone else had this problem?

 

[kkenney]

I'm not sure what happened with mine. This was my first time hatching and we did it with a broody bantam. Because of my lack of knowledge and moving her and the nest in the daytime she killed three of four of her viable eggs from being off her nest for an entire day. When the chick finally hatched she was a great momma. I put her in a homemade brooder with chicken wire inside the coop just to keep her seperate. All was great at first but 4 days later she's screaming in the morning and there is no chick to be found. I noticed some baby feathers stuck in the chicken wire. It's safe to assume the other hens pulled the chick through the chicken wire and killing and eating it. Poor little girl was so distraught we gave her more eggs a few days later along with a solid sided brooder this time. She hatched her first a couple of days early two days ago and another one piped last night. So far so good with this new brooder box! Unfortunately I had to learn through a terrible mistake that sometimes hens will even pull a chick through chicken wire if they are nasty enough.