mumma hen ripped chicks wing off

[ImAussie]

I've got a broody hen who had her first chick hatch over night. This morning I found it out away from mum, it had been scalped. I brought it inside to put under a heat plate but then discovered it had it's other wing completely ripped off and the bone was exposed (about half a cm). Because of the exposed bone I decided that culling it was the humane option. If it had only been scalped like I originally thought, or had the bone not been exposed, I would've continued with just cleaning the wounds and putting it under heat.

I no longer thrust this hen so I kicked her out of the nest and luckily had another hen broody at the same time so gave her the eggs and she tucked them right under herself and has been purring at them, I'm going to keep a close eye on them to make sure she mothers them properly.

I guess my questions are:
1- did I do the right thing culling it? Was there anything else I could've done in this situation?
2- Had the bone not been exposed from the amputated wing would it have been reasonable to clean the wound and see if it survived?
3- Why would the mother hen have done this? Could she have known something that we didn't (though the chick looked fine other than the injuries she imposed, and even though it was quite cold when I found it, it was fighting to live, moving its legs etc, no visible deformities)? Or is it looking like she's just a bad mum? Did I do the right thing giving the remaining eggs to the other broody hen?

I always knew culling was something I'd have to face at some point, though of course it's something I'd never wanted to have to do.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Was the broody and chick in their own pen or with other chickens?
Could a racoon, rat or other predator have reach the chick and pulled the wing off?
Did you find the detached wing or had it disappeared?

If you accessed the damage and determined that culling was the most humane thing to do, then it was.

Hard to know what happened since you didn't see it. Some hens are good at sitting, but they are not good with chicks.

Time will tell if the other broody hen is going to make a good Mama. How long has she been sitting and how far along are all the eggs she's sitting on. Sounds like hatch may be imminent if you already had one hatch. Or is this a staggered hatch?

 

[ImAussie]

Was the broody and chick in their own pen or with other chickens?
Could a racoon, rat or other predator have reach the chick and pulled the wing off?
Did you find the detached wing or had it disappeared?

If you accessed the damage and determined that culling was the most humane thing to do, then it was.

Hard to know what happened since you didn't see it. Some hens are good at sitting, but they are not good with chicks.

Time will tell if the other broody hen is going to make a good Mama. How long has she been sitting and how far along are all the eggs she's sitting on. Sounds like hatch may be imminent if you already had one hatch. Or is this a staggered hatch?

Thank you for your reply.
The broody with the eggs were separated in a small enclosure so no others could get to the chick. I'm in Australia so no raccoons, though we do get rats of course but it didn't have any bite marks, the chick was scalped, and the only other visible injury were the amputated wing. The wing was still in there, not eaten. The broody hen had the chicks down feathers on her beak. So I'm as certain as I can be without having seen it happen that she was the culprit.

The other broody has been sitting for a couple weeks. The eggs are all at day 22, though we've had some cooler weather so I wasn't surprised to have a bit of a delay. Out of the 6 remaining eggs 2 have now hatched, and 2 more are about half way there. The final 2 have not yet pipped.

So far this second mumma (an australorp) is so far doing all the right things. I've managed to move her into the seperate small enclosure after the first 2 hatch, just made it a bit darker for her to feel calm being moved from "her" nest. Because she had her hatched babies in there she was happy to sit in the new nest instead of her previous one.
So far so good.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Sounds like she may do just fine with the chicks. I hope so.

I agree with you then. I would not let the other hen even sit on eggs. If she goes broody again, I'd break her.

 

[ImAussie]

That's great. Makes me feel better about my decision, I was heartbroken having to cull that chick but I just couldn't leave it like that.