My poor hen is bullied, lost her babies to snake

Attempte

Hatching
Sep 17, 2019
2
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2
I could have put this under emergency but that is a purely emotional reaction.

I have a white hen and she is mercilessly bullied - worse, she just lost her babies (twice actually) to a snake - the babies were 4 weeks old. Three of them - she fought as well as she could, I thought she was going to die because of the loss of feathers she sustained in trying to defend the babies. I cried a million tears it was so unfair and all my fault for not protecting her and the babies better...... Last time the chicks were only 2 weeks old and the same thing.... It is probably blatantly obvious I am a newbie but I feel so sorry for her.

I live in the Bahamas and these snakes are worse than my birth home in Australia they got through the thinnest of cracks and still ate the chicks soft little bones with no trace left - so yes, now, after 2 rounds, the coup is, I hope, snake proofed.

There are 2 other hens (there were 3 but baby chicken murdering snake of round 1 saw the other hen - which was white hen's best friend, killed by the snake) and one rooster... both the other hens pick on my white hen - she is losing a lot of feathers (she didn't have much left after the snake incident. White hen is the only one that lays, they were her babies both times that were murdered.

My thoughts:
1) Separate her but get her 2 other baby hens (not too hard probably on this island)..... as she desperately needs a real friend but am worried if I brought in an adult hen she would be placed even further down the pecking order BUT... would she adopt them or just ignore them?

2) Eat all the other hens (really could at this point)

3) Separate white hen only until she regains strength but then she will be lonely and how to reintroduce her to the others without being back to square one where she is attacked by the others... so back to thought 1 of getting her some babies... not that I want to rip baby chicks from their own mother but white hen needs something done quickly.

HELP! Please...
 
Right now... yes, I think I have... I have no see'um net on every side (and now dug down 6 inches all around as well for good measure... but that doesn't solve the mental wellbeing - actually either of her or me!
 
I would do both 1 and 2. Isolate her until she regains her feathers. Feed her well to regain strength then try to introduce baby chicks to her. But sometimes a hen won’t adopt strangers, but I hope she does!

I’m sooo sorry for the loss of your chicks. I recently lost a total of 9 chicks. Three different batches. One set to my dog, one set to my carelessness and not understanding how strong the heat was, and the third the mama hen was sitting on the baby and I guess it got too hot and died. I feel your pain. I have decided not to have chicks til spring now. My hen does currently have 4 chicks who are like two weeks old. Hoping they make it to adulthood. I have better survival statistics with grown chickens than I do with chicks.
 

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