My hen killed the last peeps she hatched!

[Betty 71]

I am hoping someone out there has had this experience. I have the best Hen ever, she is 5 years old. Last summer I let her hatch 2 peeps. She killed them. She is such a good broody hen, so I am letting her hatch 5 eggs. One of them hatched today, so I took it and put it in my incubator. I am not new at raising chicks, but I usually order them from a hatchery. Please give me any suggestions as to how to care for this tiny infant. The peep is in a dry safe place with a heat lamp , I suspect there will be more hatching tomorrow. Thank you for the feed back. Honestly if she didn't kill the peeps last year , I would have let her keep them.

 

[sourland]

Good luck for a successful hatch and in raising the chicks.

 

[Justso]

I know this happens. Some hens can be overly aggressive. Personally I wouldn't trust a hen that did that ever again, I think you did the right thing by pulling the chick. If you think there are going to be more chicks there won't be any problem integrating with each other. In the future if you want a good broody to help you out maybe consider getting a silky or a bantam cochin?
Best of luck!