Hen attacked few hour old chick

[jessleazier]

I picked my normally very sweet hen up and moved her to check the eggs under her (expecting her very first one to hatch yesterday) like i do several times a day, when I saw it i screached from excitement, I took the water dish out filled it and took some pics while she drank but I didn't touch the chick. When my hen went to drink the water the chick tried to follow her out and my hen turned and attacked it and it was bleeding in a few spots so I picked it up it was still alive but just wanted back under her mama. The hen ran into the box to lay on the other 4 eggs and I tucked the chick back under her wing and she laid on it happily ... idk what will happen to the chick now but when I decided to let my broody hen hatch her first 5 eggs ever, I told myself that I'm letting it happen the natural way... no matter what! I just didn't think shed try to kill them like that it was sad to see she pecked its head grabbed it by the back flung it and stomped on it then took off running the chick got up and tried to go after the hen peeping its little head off I was horrified! Shes been laying on the chick which is still peeping and alive for several hours now with no problems, could it be that I just made her anxious and since it was the first time she actually looked at the chick instead of laying on it and the first chick she's hatched that she panicked!? Will she kill the other 4 when they hatch too?

 

[bluecochinDixi]

this happened to me. i would kept an eye out and watch over all the others. if she doesnt attack the others and still attacks the one, check to see if it is still bleeding or is bleeding. If it is bleeding and the hen keeps attacking it, remove it and treat its wounds then find a place to sleep for the night. I put myn in a cat crate and it slept in my room. if she attacks all of them then i would remove her and treat the chicks. hop this helps

 

[chickengeorgeto]

I picked my normally very sweet hen up and moved her to check the eggs under her (expecting her very first one to hatch yesterday) like i do several times a day, when I saw it i screached from excitement, I took the water dish out filled it and took some pics while she drank but I didn't touch the chick. When my hen went to drink the water the chick tried to follow her out and my hen turned and attacked it and it was bleeding in a few spots so I picked it up it was still alive but just wanted back under her mama. The hen ran into the box to lay on the other 4 eggs and I tucked the chick back under her wing and she laid on it happily ... idk what will happen to the chick now but when I decided to let my broody hen hatch her first 5 eggs ever, I told myself that I'm letting it happen the natural way... no matter what! I just didn't think shed try to kill them like that it was sad to see she pecked its head grabbed it by the back flung it and stomped on it then took off running the chick got up and tried to go after the hen peeping its little head off I was horrified! Shes been laying on the chick which is still peeping and alive for several hours now with no problems, could it be that I just made her anxious and since it was the first time she actually looked at the chick instead of laying on it and the first chick she's hatched that she panicked!? Will she kill the other 4 when they hatch too?

In the future try not to lift the hen off the nest several times a day, especially just to look at her eggs. After all in the hen's mind the eggs in her nest belong to her and not to you regardless of how sweet she seems.

It is important for hens to imprint on her chicks but a chick never before seen by its mother running unexpectedly out of a nest box that the hen is not prepared to abandon can be interpreted by the setting hen as an interloper. Sitting hens attach interlopers, its just what sitting hens do. This is why it is considered safe to rear hen hatched chicks in with the rest of the flock. Baby chicks' mothers do all of their babies heavy fighting for them. The less disturbance or other things that you can do "FOR' a sitting hen it seems that the better that hen will do hatching eggs for you.

 

[cochinsarecute]

Leave mama and chicks alone the more you do the better things will go

 

[jessleazier]

She tried to kill them all this time and she's also still broody trying to hatch air! I brought the chicks in bought a heating lamp got them all set up and now they're slowly dying!! So frustrating!! They sprawl out gasp for air and slowly die! Tried sugar water and grinding up they're feed they eat drink water and sprawl back out no poop built up clean bottoms idk what's going on maybe she knew they were sick....

 

[kootenayhen]

if you have them separated and any are still alive under a heat lamp make sure to teach them how to drink from a shallow chick waterer by dipping their beaks into the water....and feel them hard boiled egg yolks...it will make them strong if they can survive...some hens are good brooders but not moms or she may be a first time mom and not have the instinct...try those two things to keep them alive...I have dropper fed chicks with mushy egg yolk and water mix right into their beaks like 10 times a day to keep them alive the first few days until they eat on their own....good luck...

 

[junebuggena]

Make sure they aren't too warm. Chicks can overheat and dye. Overheated chicks pant, and spread out. Cold chicks huddle together in a tight group. You want them somewhere in between. Not spread out and avoiding each other, but not all huddled up either.