Hen killed her own chicks.....why??

[Hangin Wit My Peeps]

Is she a first time broody? Mine ate her chicks as they hatched! EVERY one that hatched she ate...or the other hens ate

I managed to save three of those eggs and they hatched

Sorry your having this prob too

I think it's just some hens are NOT meant to be mothers. I am trying the silkie next time!

 

[jemagsy]

This is so strange to read here as my husband and I were just reading about this tonight in storey's guide to raising chickens... in that book the author states the broody sees them as interlopers and kills from time to time because of this. Also says that other hens may attack the "new chicks" - I guess it's much like integrating any two flocks only these are only just a day old and a bit easier to kill. We've never seen it happen, but have never let a broody hatch a set either.

 

[firedove]

animals usually have a reason for killing their babies. Rabbits for instance can have many reasons. With a first time rabbit it can be that they are scared by the whole situation. Rabbits will also do it if they are dehydrated or if they need protein due to a deficiency. Other reasons are that they tried to pull a stuck one out and ended up eating part of it while trying to help. If kits are born dead anyways a doe will sometimes eat them. Sometimes the mom's just get overzealous cleaning the babies and clean off ears or legs along with the sac that surrounds the newborn. If something is physically wrong with the kit, even sometimes internal defects, she may kill that baby. If they feel their nest is threatened by a predator they will eat their babies. That last one comes from their wild instincts, in the wild a doe will eat her young if she thinks a predator is going to find them. She does this to regain the protein she needs to produce another healthy litter as quickly as possible without depleting herself. Then she just has the next litter in a place she feels is safer.

I say all of this because it demonstrates that although animals always know why they are killing their babies, we can only guess at which reason it might be. With rabbits you can make sure they are somewhere they feel comfortable, make sure they have plenty of food and water available, feed them a high protein snack a few days before birthing, and that's all you can do. Taking those measures equals out to a high rate of success with birthing but you still get that one litter every once in a while that doesn't work. There is also sometimes that one mother who just can't figure out how to get it right.

So maybe your hen has her reasons or maybe she is just a bad mom, but you will probably never know either way.

 

[Babetteschicks]

We just had the same thing happen this morning! We have been awaiting the arrival of these babies and heard the coop in an uproar early went to check and found mama chewing and shaking her dead chick like a dog shakes a chew toy. She was a mean hen to start with anyways pecking at any hen that wanted to set so we let her sit on all the eggs we seperated her and let her be and this is what we got! I have to change her name to drumstick!

We took the remaining eggs and placed them under a heating pad now crossing fingers and saying a prayer for our babies that we can see moving in the egg when we candle

 

[myfester]

I just came across your thread because I have a Black Australorp that went broody after one of my Buff Orpington did. My Buff had her chicks and is a great mommy. The Australorp has so far killed 2 of her babies soon after they were born. At first I thought maybe another hen did it, so I moved broody mama to another coop and confined her so no one can bother her. Checked on her this morning and found she killed the second baby. I'm guessing she is seeing the babies as a threat, not realizing that the whole point of being broody is to create these sweet lil things. This is her first clutch that she hatched, and will be the last. I'll just stick golf balls under her if she goes broody again. It's a shame too...they were my Polish eggs too. I was looking forward to having more of them.

 

[Chicknladie]

I know this is an old post but I wanted to add that I had the same thing happen to me. My Marans hen will relentlessly and aggressively kill her own chicks, as well as any other chicks. What I really wanted to mention is the behavior that I observed before hand, in hopes that it can help someone else to be on guard in this situation. She does not get as angry as other hens when we mess with her eggs and doesn't attempt to peck us in order to defend her nest. While she was very intent on "sitting", she would take periodic breaks from her eggs throughout the day, even the day the first egg pipped. Our other hen exhausted herself, unwilling to leave that nest and would become quite nasty if we tried to mess with her eggs. So I really witnessed her to be a lackluster mother, to begin with, despite her natural urge to incubate a clutch of eggs. I was already considering giving her eggs to my other hen, before the hatch. I should have listened to my gut.

 

[Orgiva]

Same happened to me, but this hen took it much further today and pecked her last 10 week old chick to death…I found it’s corpse still warm without its head and inside. That hen is leaving my place today!

 

[Mamatomany123]

I have a hen who goes broody constantly. I once let her hatch out chicks and she started attacking them. I've kept her, just don't let her go broody anymore. She's fine when I integrate chicks at 4 weeks old also, doesn't ever peck them or pay them any mind. It's just her whole hormonal broody mind makes her a bit phsyco.