Mother hen and chicks turned on one baby chick

[pfields]

Walking by the coop (a new coop they had all to themselves) where the hen and her babies were I heard lots of cheeping. The mother hen and some of the chicks had picked another baby chick's back raw and bloody. They have lots of room all by themselves, plenty of food and water. This chick has all her tail feathers and had no prior wounds. Why would the mother turn on her? I removed the mother to the back yard where all the other chickens are. She's not happy but now I don't trust her. She has taken wonderful care of them for almost three weeks.

I brought the wounded baby chick in the house and treated her wounds with antibiotic cream and then wrapped a bandage around her. I put her in a plastic container with a stuffed animal (food and water, too) and covered it with a towel and heating pad on low. Her wounds are so bad it will be a miracle if she lives. Everything was going great. I'm so glad I happen to check on them or she would have been pecked to death.

 

[jgcalifornia]

Is everything okay now?

 

[pfields]

She's still alive, thanks for asking. I still have her in a plastic container in the tub with a heating pad over one side and her water and food on the other side with a clear plastic lid over it to keep in the heat. I also put a stuffed toy in with her. She sleeps on that toy. I'm still putting antibiotic cream on her back but she tries to pick it off now. At first it was covered with a cotton pad but it stuck to her back so we took it off with a little warm water.
I put the mother hen outside and in one day she was back to her old self, no clucking a picking on the other hens. Here's what I think, she had been broody for weeks and weeks. When our order of baby chicks came in she took right to them but I wonder (just wonder) if her internal clock was telling her broody time was over since she had started to peck at some of the chicks after 3 weeks. Today I saw the mother hen thinking about getting on the nest inside her old coop. We have the babies in a new coop that we just made.