Hen eating dead chick????

[MotherHen75]

So, long story short my broody hen was sitting on six eggs, four hatched. One eggs was infertile and another didn’t absorb the yolk and died in the shell, which we didn’t know. We left them in there for a couple days since late hatching is pretty common, she gave up on them and started freaking eating it! She loves her four alive babies but what the heck. Is this normal??

 

[danceswithronin]

She was probably just trying to clean out the nest, many prey animals will eat their dead young as a hygiene measure and to avoid attracting predators. So yeah, pretty normal.

 

[casportpony]

Yes, it's normal, they are nasty that way.