killer hen!

[Anime2lover]

I have a 11 month old wyandotte hen who took over my duck egg nest and I had heard hens will raise ducklings so I was happy to leave them under her. But then they started pipping and peeping and she started decimating them! Pecking at their shells and breaking them. There was shell and blood everywhere when I went out last night. one duckling was dead and I'm surprised they all weren't! Another was just blood everywhere and half the shell gone but when I picked it up the duckling was still alive. I collected all the damaged eggs and got them into my incubator and ramped up the humidity. Obviously because they're all damaged the ducklings arent able to hatch naturally and were drying out and all the rest, so it's been a massive few hours of misting and assisting and somehow we have live babies, with a few more with partial shells attached still in the incubator. It's full steam ICU here atm! So I'm wondering... has anyone observed this behaviour in a young hen before and will she get over it?

some hens simply aren't mother material. if your using a hen to hatch, there is some risk of them eating the egg, killing the chick. my advice is to mark her as not a good mother. though if you find one that is a good mother, mark her as a good mother for future hatching. we have three marked as good moms using yellow bands, and one that we found is a bad mom so far.

sorry for your loss.

 

[hobby chick]

some hens simply aren't mother material. if your using a hen to hatch, there is some risk of them eating the egg, killing the chick. my advice is to mark her as not a good mother. though if you find one that is a good mother, mark her as a good mother for future hatching. we have three marked as good moms using yellow bands, and one that we found is a bad mom so far.

sorry for your loss.

yep, thanks for the advice and absolutely will not use her again. Cheers

 

[Anime2lover]

yep, thanks for the advice and absolutely will not use her again. Cheers

your welcome.