My Hen Killed Her chick??!!

[koakritters]

It's my hen's first time sitting on eggs, took her 3 years to decide to do it. It's been about 3 weeks or so since I saw her lying on eggs, so I got excited when i saw there was a hole in one this afternoon, yay chicks!!

well, went in to check on her a couple hours later, and the egg had been opened, and a little dead chicky with no feathers yet lay there and she was pecking at it!!! Obviously it hadn't hatched itself, so she opened the egg and killed the chick.

Is this a sign of horrible motherly instinct? Should I take her eggs away? She's got a bunch left in there... I was all excited about having chicks born teh natural way too... Idk if i have anymore room in da bator right now... if you read my other post you'll see why, lol... been a long day!

 

[chickened]

I would put them in the incy to be safe.

 

[mrchicken]

Oh dear...put the rest in an incubator.

 

[Judy]

I had one kill her whole hatch -- I arrived as the last one was hatching instead of the first one. An incubator would be safer, but you don't really know how she will react to the rest, or whether she knew something was wrong with the first one. It wouldn't be a simple decision for me -- but then I don't own an incubator.

 

[koakritters]

my incubator is very full, and it would take come moving around and careful planning to add them all... and then i'd have 3 potential hatch times going in there! not sure i want to do that... maybe i can snag the chicks once they're born and... yah, chicken watch 24/7 until further notice! lol...

 

[Angie16hearts]

Take the eggs away! I just had my best hen kill all of her babies after they hatched. I caught her on the last one. She pecked there eyes, back and stomach. They were healthy. I pulled the last two eggs and 4 from my other broody. Just to be safe. They are hatching now. 2 more to go. I will never let Mille brood again. I will let Sierra have two of the babies. The rest will be raised by me. I'm in school not a fun sight!

 

[Angie16hearts]

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