hen attacking chick as it hatches

[natchlaly]

yesterday i went down to feed my chucks as normal my broody who has been sat for 3 weeks usually comes of her nest for food when she did not i went to investigate, I found her pecking an emerging chick. It was bleeding so I rescued it. Does anyone know why this is her second clutch

 

[DuckLady]

I will move this from the BYC Website and Feedback forum to applicable forum, Chicken behaviors for better response.

 

[akcskye]

As in "hurtfully" pecking it, not helping it come out of the egg?

The only thing I can think of, and I don't know if it happens in the chicken realm...is like when a mother cat or guinea pig knows something is wrong with a baby...they will abandon or kill.

Possibly the same thing here?

 

[lurky]

Well? You rescued it......was it ok? did it look like something was wrong? They make mistakes......I had a cat who rejected one of her kittens and i 'saved' it. There was no reason i could find for her to do it........grump. So good thing you came along.

 

[akcskye]

Lurky...

I'd say 80% of the time, the cat or whatever animal knows something is irrepairably wrong when they abandon or kill.

In the case of my kitten, Peeka, her mom orphaned her at 3 weeks...and she died at 7 weeks from genetic heart problems (like you, I was clueless to any problems and had the same sentiment regarding her mom, and then boom...she started throwing up uncontrollably and died in my arms on the way to the vet).

Sure, me rescuing her gave her a small extra measure of time, but in the long run, the end result was the same.

 

[CarriBrown]

If she had a first clutch with no problems and isn't picking on the other chicks, I'd have to agree with akcskye. There is probably something wrong that you can't see.

 

[natchlaly]

I am affrad to say that my poor chick died, rip fluffy, the next one that hatched she kicked out of the nest i thought it was dead but brought it up to the house and put it under a spot lamp 5 mins later it started breathing. Itook the four remaining eggs, 1 she had killed blood pouring from its beak, placed the other 3 in an old fish tank they all sucessfully hatched all 4 chicks are now feeding and drinking yeah what a great feeling. Any help with bantums just rescued 4 that were going to be killed as know one wanted them.

 

[Chelly]

Perhaps the mom is sick or not feeling too good

Thats very strange behavior.

 

[natchlaly]

mum feeding well looks great seems happy enough

 

[CarriBrown]

She could just be a bad mom. Who knows. Well, I'm glad you were able to save the ones that you did. Keep us updated!