Livingthehenlife
Chirping
- Apr 29, 2020
- 60
- 60
- 73
I’ve made many mistakes along the way but this feels like the worst.
We ordered two sets of chicks from a hatchery, 6 weeks apart. The first group were raised from arrival in an outdoor brooder with a momma who had hatched a few of her own. Most of them did well but we did have several hawk casualties once they started exploring outside. Then the other batch was raised indoors in our basement up to 4 weeks. We then moved them to the outdoor brooder. Day 1 & 2 went pretty well. Day 3 my daughter went out to refill waters and found 8 of the 11 new birds dead under the brooder coop. 2 others from the original flock were also found dead alongside the 8 new birds. My only assumption is that another chicken killed these birds. I can’t imagine how it happened but some birds don’t have a scratch and others have pecked heads and necks and one had all the skin and feathers ripped of the back of its head.The whole thing makes no sense. If one of the original flock members killed the newbies then why were two of the original flock also killed? If it was a predator why didn’t it eat any of the birds and why did it kill so many leaving nothing but carcasses. It has to be another chicken that did this damage. I spent a lot of time with those birds and I’ve never seen any of them behave aggressively. Momma left the brooder 4 weeks ago. There is only one cockerel among them and he has never shown aggressive behavior. How could all 10 birds be killed in the same place at the same time?
Has anyone experienced this before? Is there some other possible cause I’m missing?
our brooder coop is 4x6 elevated and wired with electricity and heat. There were 12 when I introduced the 11 new ones. 23 pullets in all.
We ordered two sets of chicks from a hatchery, 6 weeks apart. The first group were raised from arrival in an outdoor brooder with a momma who had hatched a few of her own. Most of them did well but we did have several hawk casualties once they started exploring outside. Then the other batch was raised indoors in our basement up to 4 weeks. We then moved them to the outdoor brooder. Day 1 & 2 went pretty well. Day 3 my daughter went out to refill waters and found 8 of the 11 new birds dead under the brooder coop. 2 others from the original flock were also found dead alongside the 8 new birds. My only assumption is that another chicken killed these birds. I can’t imagine how it happened but some birds don’t have a scratch and others have pecked heads and necks and one had all the skin and feathers ripped of the back of its head.The whole thing makes no sense. If one of the original flock members killed the newbies then why were two of the original flock also killed? If it was a predator why didn’t it eat any of the birds and why did it kill so many leaving nothing but carcasses. It has to be another chicken that did this damage. I spent a lot of time with those birds and I’ve never seen any of them behave aggressively. Momma left the brooder 4 weeks ago. There is only one cockerel among them and he has never shown aggressive behavior. How could all 10 birds be killed in the same place at the same time?
Has anyone experienced this before? Is there some other possible cause I’m missing?
our brooder coop is 4x6 elevated and wired with electricity and heat. There were 12 when I introduced the 11 new ones. 23 pullets in all.