Hen keeps murdering chicks!!

[Tamdog]

My goodness, that had to be a hard morning. So sorry you had to see that. I think it would take me a long while to ever look at that mother chicken with out being angry. You have come to the right place to get advice. Welcome.

 

[chicken3fly]

This hen is not human and will not "learn how to treat her chicks". Even humans hurt and kill their children. Either get rid of her or let her be who she is. Separate her until the chicks are bigger and then re-integrate. Chickens have certain instincts that cannot be changed. You can't send your hen to rehab. . .sorry.

righttt Sorry i guess im bad at thinking on my feet

 

[chicken3fly]

2nd year hatching off chicks, 1st year went good. This year one of the hens is a chick from last year, the other hen is the same main mom from last year. Ok so there both sitting on about 23 eggs, they started hatching off and around 5 days old I noticed one was dead in the run area. I watched them for a while and eventually saw the bad hen simply pecked the face of one the chicks and then chased it and kept pecking it's face and once it was injured severely, she stopped and walked off with the rest of chicks following. I tried to mend the hurt chick but it passed away. I looked at the other chick that was already dead and the same thing was wrong with it, it's little eye and side of it's face was pecked except worse. I looked up inside the nesting box because I heard a new one up there and I knew it should've been down walking around by that point and I looked it there, it was still alive but a tiny single peck hole was near it's eye. That would did not make it either. This hens dad is a red shoulder Yokohama and it's mom is a silkie. I have no clue what to do except take her out and let my good main mom raise them. Any advice?????????

is the hen acting like this(hen=smack face) u should only let her be with other hens

 

[chicken3fly]

2nd year hatching off chicks, 1st year went good. This year one of the hens is a chick from last year, the other hen is the same main mom from last year. Ok so there both sitting on about 23 eggs, they started hatching off and around 5 days old I noticed one was dead in the run area. I watched them for a while and eventually saw the bad hen simply pecked the face of one the chicks and then chased it and kept pecking it's face and once it was injured severely, she stopped and walked off with the rest of chicks following. I tried to mend the hurt chick but it passed away. I looked at the other chick that was already dead and the same thing was wrong with it, it's little eye and side of it's face was pecked except worse. I looked up inside the nesting box because I heard a new one up there and I knew it should've been down walking around by that point and I looked it there, it was still alive but a tiny single peck hole was near it's eye. That would did not make it either. This hens dad is a red shoulder Yokohama and it's mom is a silkie. I have no clue what to do except take her out and let my good main mom raise them. Any advice?????????

i looked it up & i think she is just stressed

 

[chicken3fly]

2nd year hatching off chicks, 1st year went good. This year one of the hens is a chick from last year, the other hen is the same main mom from last year. Ok so there both sitting on about 23 eggs, they started hatching off and around 5 days old I noticed one was dead in the run area. I watched them for a while and eventually saw the bad hen simply pecked the face of one the chicks and then chased it and kept pecking it's face and once it was injured severely, she stopped and walked off with the rest of chicks following. I tried to mend the hurt chick but it passed away. I looked at the other chick that was already dead and the same thing was wrong with it, it's little eye and side of it's face was pecked except worse. I looked up inside the nesting box because I heard a new one up there and I knew it should've been down walking around by that point and I looked it there, it was still alive but a tiny single peck hole was near it's eye. That would did not make it either. This hens dad is a red shoulder Yokohama and it's mom is a silkie. I have no clue what to do except take her out and let my good main mom raise them. Any advice?????????

i also heard that hens kill the males sometimes

 

[Megan423]

Personally I would get rid of her. But maybe she is overwhelmed since she had too many eggs to hatch.

You know, I thought that too because it seemed like any more than 3 chicks at a time and she couldn't handle it . But thankfully my Cochin hen is a sweet momma

 

[MROO]

i also heard that hens kill the males sometimes

Ummm ... NO ... not at that age. If they're going after a male at all, it'll likely be a pesky teenager, not the teenies.

 

[chicken3fly]

2nd year hatching off chicks, 1st year went good. This year one of the hens is a chick from last year, the other hen is the same main mom from last year. Ok so there both sitting on about 23 eggs, they started hatching off and around 5 days old I noticed one was dead in the run area. I watched them for a while and eventually saw the bad hen simply pecked the face of one the chicks and then chased it and kept pecking it's face and once it was injured severely, she stopped and walked off with the rest of chicks following. I tried to mend the hurt chick but it passed away. I looked at the other chick that was already dead and the same thing was wrong with it, it's little eye and side of it's face was pecked except worse. I looked up inside the nesting box because I heard a new one up there and I knew it should've been down walking around by that point and I looked it there, it was still alive but a tiny single peck hole was near it's eye. That would did not make it either. This hens dad is a red shoulder Yokohama and it's mom is a silkie. I have no clue what to do except take her out and let my good main mom raise them. Any advice?????????

im also new to BYC for the hen maybe watch her closely to see if shes just feelling stressed
& try to fix it then see if she can keep chicks safe for a day if she kills some but not the others shes still feling stressed or they r rossters try to figure out what else is stressing her then try again if she kills some there are probably some males in there with her

 

[Eggscaping]

i also heard that hens kill the males sometimes

I really wonder if that's true...since baby chicks are extremely difficult to sex, it seems unlikely. How would the hen know which was male and which was female? Chicks don't start to develop sex markers until much older and it's not like the hen turns them upside down and peers into their vents!

 

[chicken3fly]

Ummm ... NO ... not at that age. If they're going after a male at all, it'll likely be a pesky teenager, not the teenies.

maybe google was wrong abot that