My mamma chicken might be homicidal! help!

kathrync

Songster
10 Years
Apr 25, 2013
83
34
121
One of the eggs my broody hen was sitting on hatched today, and the baby bird is dead. I missed it because I was at work. not sure if she killed it or what. There were no wounds, but the chick had a broken leg. Could she have crushed it? Should I remove the rest of the eggs from her nest? I don't have an incubator, what should I do??
 
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It's not super unusual for a hen to accidentally crush a chick especially if she is a first time mama. The chick may also have hatched very weak. I've only had one hen have a dead chick under her, the other eggs hatched fine and she raised them tolerably well. It was her first time. Just keep an eye on her and check, listen for her making a soft cluck cluck cluck that means she has hatched chicks and knows she has them.
 
It looks like everything is ok. Another one hatched this morning and it's alive and well, momma hen is taking good care of it. I guess that first chick was probably too weak, and the momma accidentally squished it
 

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