How long will a chick look for mom (broody hen died)

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pointsalamander

pointsalamander

Songster
7 Years
Aug 24, 2016
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On saturday we gave my broody 1 year old hen a single day old chick as we legally could only pen 1 more.
Today sometime between 830am and noon she very suddenly passed away suddenly. I know the chick can't be alone so I ran out and got a second chick.

Before I brought the other baby home there was lots of distressed peeping. But when the 2nd baby got here that was greatly reduced....

Until the sun went down when no friend no stuffy no nothing would do for that baby who was desperately calling and searching for her mom.


How long will she look for her? She finally passed out after 30 minutes of frantic calling. I felt so dang bad I cuddled with her for a while but that only marginally helped.

I've had hens lose chicks but never the other way arround
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FeatherTay said:
Do you have heat for her? It may take a couple days for her to get over her death.
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Yes. The brooder plate is in there and on. It's warm and I even made a snugly cave in the warmest spot I could to try mimic that under mom feeling..... The little Chick that never had a mom wandered right in and passed out.
 
BigBlueHen53 said:
How sad! Any idea what caused the death of the mother? This is so distressing for you, I'm sorry for you and the chick both. :hugs
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All we can figure is because I was out at 8:30 and aw her with the baby and she was fine. And that she was eating and drinking at 7pm the night before that she died of a heart attack or stroke. I checked her for mites, bruising, swelling, any discharge or poop stuck. She was literally in PERFECT condition just dead still in the broody mom but asleep position. Unfortunately I don't have the $175 that our local university would charge to do a necropsy to see ultimately why.
 
pointsalamander said:
All we can figure is because I was out at 8:30 and aw her with the baby and she was fine. And that she was eating and drinking at 7pm the night before that she died of a heart attack or stroke. I checked her for mites, bruising, swelling, any discharge or poop stuck. She was literally in PERFECT condition just dead still in the broody mom but asleep position. Unfortunately I don't have the $175 that our local university would charge to do a necropsy to see ultimately why.
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Was she in her normal nest place or somewhere else. I had a broody that was killed when she tried to keep the birds away from her nest (she was on eggs so they thankfully were hatched like any incubator babies)
 
JacinLarkwell said:
Was she in her normal nest place or somewhere else. I had a broody that was killed when she tried to keep the birds away from her nest (she was on eggs so they thankfully were hatched like any incubator babies)
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Normal nest area. However I Put a wire dog kennel around her nest box so that she could get up and move around a bit but the rest of the birds couldn't get to her. I had actually walked out to lock the rest of the birds out of the coop so she could have the whole coop.

There was not a single mark on her body either. No blood not even a feather out of place.
 

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