HELP!!!! 2 chicks are dead.

newchickgurl

In the Brooder
Apr 18, 2015
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I had 2 broodie hens - 1 hatched 2 chicks and the other hatched 1 chicks. Then hen that had 1 chick started out with 6 eggs. She ate 4 eggs or some other hen did. The other hen started with 5 and 3 eggs were not viable. Yesterday I seen the momma's fighting and ran out to see what was going on and found 1 chick dead in the chicken run. All of our chickens are/were together. After finding the first chick we seperated the momma's and the 2 chicks to a seperate room and covered run in with the big run so they are all together so to speak. I looked out there a little while ago and seen the momma's all puffed out and so I ran out there only to find another chick laying there dead. I have no idea what happened to either chick. So I removed one hen and now she is going crazy. What do I do with her. Any help is greatly appreciated.
 
Hens do not typically 'share' chicks. Once they bond with their chicks, they will kill any 'strange' chicks that wander over. Most likely, they killed each other's chicks. It generally best to keep broody hens and their families away from each other.
 
Okay thank you. We only had 1 broody hen in the Spring with no problems. And this time we had two and had no idea. And again Thank you for getting back to me so soon. Now what do we do with the other mom who has no chick now?
 
She's likely is past the point of being able to bond with a new chick/chicks. There's nothing that can be done but keep her away from the other momma. She'll just have to get through her loss. In a week or two, the broody hormones should be cleared from her system and she'll get back to laying.
 
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Okay thank you again. The momma and baby are doing good. And hopefully it wont take the other hen to long to stop brooding.
 

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