- Jul 10, 2014
- 40
- 1
- 22
I just had something very sad happen. I've been rotating my chicks between mama and brooder every few days, a few at a time so they are handled and friendly, but learn lots of chicken skills too. It's been going great and the chicks in the brooder have been with the three remaining chicks from the earlier hatch, who kind of take care of them. This morning I did a supervised transition into putting them all together in a larger spot. Looked to be going great, one of the mamas (two hens are co-parenting) even sat on two of the older chicks to keep them warm. Then out of the blue one of the hens attacked one of the older chicks and damaged its head pretty good. It's still alive for now... I guess the next few hours will tell if it makes it. I got mad and put the mamas out with the other seramas in their pen. Why that chick and not the others? She pecked at it a little but it appeared to be normal pecking order business and was letting it feed next to her, them bam! Attack. She didn't peck at the other two older chicks or pay them any mind at all. And it was hours before she attacked it.
