Need some help with new chick

[Jacy0904]

My broody hen has been setting on eggs for 20 days. This morning I went out to check on them and there was a dead baby laying outside the nest. The eggs under her are leghorn and buff orphington (sp) but this baby was fully formed and white. Also when Mama got up I checked the other eggs and there is no cracks or movement. So multiple questions: 1) why was the baby white (and I mean solid white) 2)there was no egg shell so did mama eat it? and 3) would mama have kicked it out of the nest if it had issues or died after hatching? I know when I got the leghorns they were all fuzzy and yellow.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

You will need to put a fence around the mom to keep the chicks from wandering. Other birds will kill them, and sometimes they wander off and get chilled because they haven't learned to return.

Also watch your broody hen, some will attack chicks, and kill them, especially if it's her first time.

Buff Orpingtons and leghorns can look white when first hatched.

 

[Jacy0904]

Thank you for that! I am trying to watch her. As far as I know it is her first time being a mom. I have had her and her pen mate for prob 4 years now but never had a rooster. I acquired 3 leghorns and the buff almost 2 years ago as baby chicks and got a rooster about 8 weeks ago. Growing up our chickens ran wild but I keep these in a pen. The other hens will not go into the coop where she is except to roost at nite so I know she is protective.