My broody is pecking eggs open an kicking them out of nest

[walkswithdog]

That's good she accepted the baby. Hens have brains the size of tiny peas. You'll never actually know what stress, or hormone, or breeze or atmospheric condition made the little thing go temporarily insane. Since it's the first time she's blown it, just shrug and call it a brain fart. That's not a vety big brain.

Hens blow hatches all the time, first timers and long practiced broodies. They're just birds. Maybe she thought she saw a snake. Only God knows what caused her to freak. It's why I initially bought an incubator, for hen brain farts. Whether it's pecked, abandoned, crushed - at some point most broodies will make a mistake or have a bad week. Having back up just made more sense than losing all those babies.

Hope she stays on track and all is well.

 

[baldie]

I have an incubator also. I am sure that is the only reason the baby survived. I pulled the rest of the shell off and put her in the incubator and a few hours later she was up and walking around. Originally the egg and baby inside were extremely cold. I thought for sure it was a goner. I took the rest of her eggs and they are in the incubator now.

Oh yeah, the term "brain fart" I havent heard that in forever!! LOL Thanks for the laugh!

 

[baldie]

Update...my AWESOME mama did not only take to the one baby hatched in the incubator, but I had another one hatch yeasterday and last night I put it under her and sure enough this morning, she had all 3 out showing them the ropes!!
This really makes me wonder what she was thinking when she pecked the eggs that were hatching. Maybe she thought they were stressed and was trying to help it out?? I know human chicken mamas that do that. LOL

 

[mulia24]

oh, so this is the 5th, then perhaps she think it's good to learn how to play soccer after long tired and of course boring broody period.

maybe she just think to escape from the roo, perhaps the roo done his job with brute force or the girl think it's better to keep her feathers not being pecked anymore by the roo when mating so she decided to find a *peace* by being broody.

and congrats on the hatching and the good mom to show how to eat and better show them how to survive against any attack.

 

[Happy Chooks]

Wow, that's strange. I'm glad mama is raising the babies though.

 

[walkswithdog]

You gotta face it, they're NOT rocket scientists... Noon, high tide, Wednesday, anything can create a momentary misconnection, aka Brain fart.

In the end the best part is she's gone back to her normal self and is raising them, which is just terrific. And it probably won't happen again. It being just a "thing" that happened. Heck, you KNOW she's forgotten it already.

Nature is funny sometimes and you just roll with the punches. Yep, when you have broodies, having a back up incubator is a god-send. Something just does happen now and then. Nature isn't perfect, ever.

 

[Suechick]

How strange.
This is a great story, the range of behavior that chickens can have is mind boggling.
Maybe the planets were aligned funny or she didn't like the phase of the moon...

Who knows. It sounds like you're taking good care of everyone.

 

[baldie]

Hi Sue, welcome to BYC!! I will be posting some pics of her and the babies a little later. First I have to play with my kids...lol...we have a fort to build with Daddies wood. Ha, ha!!

 

[baldie]

Okay here is the mama and the baby!!

 

[baldie]

I had 2 more of her eggs hatch in the incubator on Halloween and I put the chicks under her last night and this morning she had them out "teaching" them the ropes. She is such an awesome mama, I still wonder why she did that to the eggs. The chick I saved from the first cold pecked egg is fine. It looks to be a boy though. Maybe she is prejudice..LOL. Anyway 3 more eggs to go, wish me luck with getting her to take to the last 2, they should be hatching today or tomorrow.