HELP! broody hen killed a chick! time sensitive!

[aBirdNerd]

do you have any roosters?
EDIT- If you do, watch if they are being aggressive towards her. If they are, then she could be taking it off on the babies because they are weaker than the rest of the flock.

 

[crazy4ChickensNducks]

do you have any roosters?
EDIT- If you do, watch if they are being aggressive towards her. If they do, then she could be taking it off on the babies because they are weaker than the rest of the flock.

yes hes my profile pic, but the hen and her chicks are in a barn in a cage seperated from any other bird or animal.

 

[aBirdNerd]

Try keeping the chicks in a brooder for about a week, then re-introduce them to the hen

 

[crazy4ChickensNducks]

and you have first hand experience that this works, because im highly skeptical that she would accept them back, much less still be broody.

didn't think so.

 

[crazy4ChickensNducks]

I would let her and the chicks out of the crate inside the coop where they are to live. Try to empty the coop beforehand and block the others outside. Then watch how she is behaving. She should exit the crate with the chicks following. She should then start foraging and showing them where to get food and water. She also should viciously go after the other chickens outside who come near her chicks. If she seems to be protecting them and keeping them with her without pecking them, I would say you are good.

I have never kept a broody inside a dog crate for that long after hatching her chicks. Usually I open the gate on the 3 rd day once all chicks are hatched or I have candled eggs and tossed the ones that are not going to hatch.

she is not in the coop. so the other chickens have not seen her thru the bars. should i still try and put her in the coop with her chicks? the coop is pretty small and the run is below it (not a prefab, i built it) but i just moved a wall in my layers coop so there is an empty 12x4 space in their, but i have not started on an outside pen yet. (this will be the future bantam coop) so maybe i put her and the chicks in their and then try to get a temporary pen made outside?

 

[Marans-copper-and-cuckoo]

how big is the hen and how many chicks are there?

 

[crazy4ChickensNducks]

how big is the hen and how many chicks are there?

She is a bantam, there are pics above. There are now 5 chicks.

 

[Bert96746]

Maybe she has chicken postpartum anxiety

 

[aart]

I put her in an old prefab for now.

@crazy4ChickensNducks did she calm down in the 'private' prefab?

 

[crazy4ChickensNducks]

I think what happened is she grew accustomed to going outside in the playpen.
They would go in the play pen a few times a week, but they hadn’t been out in around 6 days, so she was trying to get out. Now she is perfectly content again pecking away on grass. When it’s nice I will attach a playpen and let her and her chicks out into a larger area during the day.