Killer hens

[BellaLulaFarm]

It's been a hard last week in the world of chickens. Our 7 week old chicks moved outside, and were doing well, but then we had a cold snap and instead of sleeping in the nice snug back of their baby coop, a bunch of the chicks opted to sleep in one of the nesting boxes up near the front--they were all piled on top of each other and smothered one of the Black Australorps to death. It was supposed to stay cold for a few days, and we had to go out of town for the weekend, so we moved all the chicks (fairly sizable by now) in with the adult hens so the chicks would be more protected from weather in the big coop. They did well for the days we were at home, but then our critter sitter found our 7-week roo pecked to death by the big hens. They were still pecking at the body even as she came in the coop. Obviously, all the chicks are now back in the little coop, and since it's warmer, we had no more nighttime fatalities, but...

why would the chicks be so stupid that they wouldn't move back to the warm part of the coop?
shouldn't a chick this old be aware enough not to get smothered? Do I need to continue to worry about smothering deaths?
Since the big hens have now tasted blood, do I need to worry about this happening again when I must move the chicks into the big coop in a few weeks? (the baby coop is in the garden, and they're going to have to come out eventually)
if I got a big roo, would this keep the killer hens in line?

I feel really bad that the chicks survived all the illnesses and dangers of chickhood just to lose 2 to accidents now...

 

[Tuffoldhen]

I never put chicks in with adult birds, too much can go wrong. The adults will kill or starve chicks out when there is not enough space for them to get away from them or not enough feeders & water to be share. I don't put my grow-outs in th main henhouse still they are the same size and can fend for themselves. They have piled because they are too cold and will smother each other looking for warmth.

 

[BellaLulaFarm]

So if the larger hens are so mean to teenagers, how have chickens survived for so long? I realize that the mother hens will protect the babies for a while, but after they are this big, I would assume the mother hen wouldn't still be protecting them....makes me worried about letting my silkies go broody next spring as I had planned...