Introducing chicks

[JRabbit90]

Hello everyone! At the moment, I have a broody with 8 chicks that are 4-5 days old in the chicken run (since my flock are free range). I also took her abondoned 6 eggs and started incubating them since I figured they would hatch in a day or so and I could just introduce them at night after they sat in the incubator for about 48 hours. Anyways, the first chick hatched 3 days ago and I figured since there weren't any piped eggs I could just take her out and introduce her to mom. Well, the first day went smoothly! Mom was super happy and didn't even notice. Then this morning I couldn't find the chick with the rest of the crew. I later found the chick in the corner of the run hiding from the rest of the family. Her back was pretty torn up, but she still seemed pretty lively and determined to hide from them. I took the chick in, cleaned up her back and stuck her in a brooder. She just got done eating and drinking water and now she's asleep. Despite what happened the chick seems her normal self. Should I just keep her in the brooder until her 5 other siblings hatch and just raise them or should I try again? It seems like the 8 chicks went after her and not the broody since she was calling for her to come join them. Has anyone ever dealt with this?

 

[Emojikitten]

Sadly, I haven't dealt with this. But I know how chickens work, so you might not want to put her back because she knows what the flock will do to her, and also knows that you will love her. She would want to stay with you, but with other babies, she could be with them instead. I would try and put her back in the flock with the babies. If you find that happen to it again, I would just take it in and have it as a little house pet. Hope this helps!

 

[JRabbit90]

Yeah as soon as she heals I'm going to try again. She's already walking and eating on her own, but she still seems to be in pain just by looking at the way she stands. But she's pretty happy at the moment teaching her newly hatched sibling how to eat and drink.