mother hen attacking chick

[Keri78]

GREAT JOB!!!

Saving that little cutie!!! Not sure the breed but PRETTY!!! I would keep another chick with her too b/c I've heard of people raising just one chick alone having MAJOR issues with it once it comes time to reintroduce them to the flock...not so bad when they have each other b/c they "know that they are chickens and have socialized with each other not just a human"...hope that makes sense! Blessings, Keri

 

[Barry Natchitoches]

PLEEZE relocate another chick to grow with this little one!


Two chicks can grow up quite well in a rubbermaid container that is kept warm. No mother is NOT a problem.


But what is a problem -- what is absolutely cruel, IMHO -- is to make that little one live a life of isolation. What will happen when she is to be merged with the other chicks later, when they are bigger? If she is alone, with no fellow chick to merge with her, she will be cruelly pecked and picked on by all of the others, with nobody to help her or stand up with her.


I have successfully merged two recently with a larger group (my broody only hatched three, and the roo had to be rehomed). But they clung together for dear life those first few days. They really needed each other during the merging process. I cannot even begin to think how horrible it would have been, if they had not had each other during that difficult time.


Please, bring another chick to live with this little one.


OH, and one other suggestion -- you might put a mirror in there with the two chicks. I did that with the most recent two that my broody hatched (I had to take them away from her because she had diarrhea), and they are growing quite well in their rubbermaid tub with their little mirror. They are now six and a half weeks old and are still living inside that rubbermaid container because of the really cold weather outside, and it's working out. (The broody returned to her flock over a month ago).

 

[gryeyes]

The photo of the chick in the blanket is absolutely adorable. I mean, they're all adorable photos, but that one is TOTALLY adorable.

Get that chick a companion!

 

[Bandera Grassland]

Is there any new info about mothers pecking chicks? I have a Cubalaya hen that hatched out an Australorp chick last Saturday. She had 16 more eggs under her (I added quite a few once she began setting). I moved the mother and chick and eggs from my nesting box to a cardboard box placed inside a 5' water trough with the bottom covered in shavings. This is the nursery where the mother was raised last summer, so it should feel familiar to her. The mother seems so excited to have the one chick, she spends a great deal of time now off the eggs and teaching the chick to scratch and peck. I placed a heat lamp over the eggs so they don't get too cold, but perhaps I was too late. Oddly, two more days went by before another egg began to hatch. This was one of her own eggs. The chick must have been weak because it took all day to hatch. I noticed a small hole in the egg around 10:00 in the morning and the chick was not out until around 6:00 in the evening. That seems a long time to me. I checked on them around 7:00 yesterday and found the mother on the nest with her little black chick nestled under her wing and the newborn still a bit damp, cast out of the box and lying on its back. It was alive, but not acting heartily. I placed it under the mother's wing. This morning, I found the chick cast out of the box again and this time its head had been pecked and it was dead. I presume mother knew it was weak and shunned it. From the color of the dead chick's feathers I would say it was a Cubalaya mixed with an Andalusian. It was grayish on the back with some yellow on the tummy.

My concern is will she continue to do this with new hatchlings, or was this an isolated incident due to the weakness of the chick? My other concern is will any of the rest of the eggs hatch since she isn't spending time on them during the day. I could confine her to a pet kennel only large enough for the box and a little food and water. This might force her to stay on the nest instead of cruising around the trough. Is it too late for the rest of the eggs? They probably went 5-6 hours yesterday without the mother before I hooked up the heat lamp and it was in the 70°'s yesterday. I'm not sure how much time she spent off the nest the day before. I only added eggs to her nest for a week after she began setting, so they should all hatch by this weekend. There is no sign of others hatching yet.

 

[chicknmania]

Poor baby. I don't know what NHR is either. If i were you I'd be tempted to snag a couple of extra chicks from a feed store or somewhere, for baby to grow up with. It will be harder for her to integrate with the flock, if she is alone, although she will eventually. One of our broodies last year hatched a nice bunch of chicks, five or so. She killed all but two. AND ate them. Gross.

She also ate all her unhatched eggs and had a classic case of hen indigestion for a day or so. It was her first brood and I kind of attributed it to that, she wasn't a very attentive mother either though she did alright, she weaned them early and promptly forgot about them.

 

[NBarnes]

NHR == New Hampshire Red

Or so I assume.

 

[Bandera Grassland]

Well, she did it again--darn! A second chick hatched this morning--another one of her own eggs. This time the chick was kept warm by the heat lamp, so it was strong. It was peeping and tumbling around the nest box. Mother hen was on the opposite side of the water trough with her one little black chick that she has bonded with. I left them be, hoping mother would take up with the new baby. When I returned a couple of hours later, she had killed the new chick like the last. This time she was exceptionally brutal. She broke a wing and a leg and pecked the head. I guess I'm just going to have to remove her from the trough. It will be very sad for the one little chick, but I can't have her killing the rest as they hatch. The one chick needs some buddies to grow up with.