Please help. I had an overzealous broody that I found sitting on 32 eggs. I split the clutch, leaving 12 with the broody and putting the other 20 in the incubator. Three hatched from the broody three days ago. Two hatched in the incubator and I put those two with mom last night. She seemed to take to them right away. Ask of then were happy this morning. I opened the door to the coop portion of the chicken tractor so mom could have fresh air and grass. I just went our to check on them and one of the incubator chicks had been pecked to death. I'm just shocked. Do you think Mama Goldie did it? The run portion of the tractor is enclosed in chicken wire. I didn't think any of the other birds could get at them. Do you think one of my other birds could have done it or should I take the remaining for chicks from Mama? Anyone have experience with something like this?
Wow, that's a hard decision. Since you're not 100% positive who attacked the chick, you really can't be certain what needs to be done to protect the remaining chicks.
We always hate to blame the mama hen, especially if there's any other possible culprit, but the reality is that some mamas do kill their chicks. A friend of mine had a beautiful Lavender Orpington that brooded 8 eggs perfectly. All was wonderful at hatch. Eight to 12 hours after the last chick hatched Denise went out to find the hen pecking at chick #4. Before Denise could do anything, the hen picked up the injured chick by the thigh, shook it violently, and started gulping it down. Denise pulled the dead chick out of the hen's mouth, then grabbed the four terrified chicks that were running around the nest screaming and put them in a box. She looked and looked for the other 3 chicks but couldn't find them, and then she looked at the very distended crop of the hen. She caught the hen and could feel the remains of chicks in her crop. Needless to say, she culled the hen and hand raised the remaining chicks, but never bred them in case there was a genetic problem.
This is a very rare scenario, but it happens in all species. Many veterinary hospitals make you sign a waiver if you want the puppies/kittens placed back with their mother after a c-section, just because clients have sued hospitals after mothers have killed and eaten their offspring. In nature, such a behavior does not successfully propagate, but when we hand raise babies and then return them to the breeding pool, unfortunately such behaviors can continue (assuming that there's a genetic basis, which there may or may not be in most cases).
So, what to do in this situation? You've really only got three choices:
1) You can hope that mama hen didn't do it and add something to the existing setup to prevent any possible access to the chicks from the other birds. If another chick is killed when mama is the only one with access, then she's the one doing it and you have to separate them. The problem with this is that you risk that another, or possibly all, chick(s) will be injured or killed, and that risk is quite high if mama killed the first one.
2) You can eliminate the potential for mama to kill any other chick by removing them from her completely and brooding them yourself.
3) You can hope that mama hen didn't do it, but try to decrease the risk of her doing it again just in case she is the guilty party. There's still a big risk here, but maybe (only maybe) not quite as big as with option #1. Animals are more likely to kill their young when they're stressed or overwhelmed or feel the need to defend themselves (or their babies). Mama may feel safer if she had some privacy with her chicks, far away from the coop. Sometimes animals that get defensive or aggressive will accidentally redirect their attack onto the wrong victim. Years ago my husband's favorite cat got into a fight with a neighbor's cat. It was an all out mutual attack, not just the usual posturing with minimal contact. My husband ran to the fight and grabbed his baby out of the fray. The other cat ran off, but his cat kept attacking him with everything it had. That's completely normal. The cat hadn't had time to mentally process who was who, and in the fog of self-defense just redirected the aggression to who ever was in the way. (My poor husband really got his feelings hurt though!) So it is possible that mama was in the midst of attacking another bird (through the wire) that she perceived as a threat to her chicks, a chick accidentally got in the way, and she couldn't mentally process that she was now attacking her chick instead of the original threat, Still not a desirable characteristic in a broody, but at least an alternate explanation to the infanticide shown by my friend's Lavender Orpington, If you do decide to give mama another chance in a more private situation, you might provide small hide areas -- places where the small chicks can get into but the hen won't fit, essentially the same principle as a creep feeder, but for escape instead of feeding. The chicks may not understand the need to escape if mom goes haywire again, but at least if they're running around they may end up in safe areas.
Please post again with an update. Good luck
