Is she killing hatching chicks?

[frankenchick]

I went down to check on my broody, and there was a dead chick in the membrane with the shell mostly peeled off. There was also a broken egg with a "quitter" in it (peee-yooo). What's going on? Are there bad eggs that are contaminating the rest? Was mama trying to help the chick with the shell peeled off? Or did she kill it?

My big Q is this: She has only hatched one chick in the last 24 hours. She seems attached to it. Should I take a chance of moving mama, chick, and remaining eggs from the stinky nest? Or will she cope with that? I don't want the baby to get sick!

 

[boxermom]

I'm interested too. I also had one dead with the shell broken around it, almost smashed. The hen moved all the eggs away from that one. Hatch day was 5 days ago. None hatched. Today, I removed them. Broody got up and there was a broken rotten one under her. Yuk!

 

[Mrs. Fluffy Puffy]

She might be ... is this her first time being broody?
One time I had a hen kill and eat all her chicks!

It was horrible!

Then I had a Buff Orp hen set on abunch of eggs and she hatched 2 out and then when the 3rd one hatched she killed it?

So just keep a close eye on her ...

 

[frankenchick]

Zasu Pitts (aka Shorty) has gone broody many times before; in fact, she fostered all of the G2 and G3 hens in the flock. This is the first time, however, that I've let her hatch chicks -- in the past, we got day-olds from Townline and put 'em under her.

I've removed the shell bits and the stinky stuff from the nest box, but there's still a smell. Will this put her off? Will it harm the lone hatched chick? Oi! I don't think we'll do this again.

 

[Mrs. Fluffy Puffy]

Quote:
Humm ... so she has gone broody, but she has never really "Hatched" out babies?
Do you have an incubator? If so I would put the remaining eggs in there for safe keeping.
What breed is your hen?

 

[frankenchick]

Shorty is a White Rock.

I couldn't stand the smell (and could not see how it could be doing them any good), so I set up my brood box and very carefully moved hen, chick, and eggs. The first thing Shorty did was make an enormous, smelly poop. Ugh! I handle some pretty smelly stuff at work, but this nearly did me in. And I discovered that the broken "quitter" egg had leaked stuff all the way down to the wood. I'll have to spray it w/ bleach water tomorrow -- couldn't do it tonight.

When I went down to close the coop, Shorty was calmly sitting on the eggs (and chick). Phew!

 

[Mrs. Fluffy Puffy]

White Rocks aren't really a "Broody" breed - my friend had a WR and she would go broody for 2 weeks and then move to a different nest, but friend sprayed her with a water hose and she never went broody since.

 

[Matt A NC]

Sounds like the quitter actually quit awhile back and the egg rotted and then popped. The contamination from that rotten egg may have killed the one.

You did the right thing by moving her.

Matt