Single bantam chick with mom: What to do?

[retsof49]

That is absolutely the cutest!!

 

[jskirwin]

8 days after hatching the baby is dead. Today I found the mother fighting with another bantam hen in the coop after a week of no aggression in the flock whatsoever. I have no idea what set things off today. When I released them to forage in the yard things calmed down and I found that the hatchling wasn't injured. The flock foraged for another hour with no signs of aggression, so we went out for Father's Day breakfast. When we returned we found the hatchling outside of the yard. I'm not sure how it got out or what killed her just outside of the fence; it apparently had a broken neck and mom looked even more banged up. I thought I had checked all the fencing of the quarter acre area, but it managed to escape or perhaps get pushed through the fencing.

Here's what the experience taught me.

1. I will not let a hen brood a single egg. I think a bantam egg + regular hen egg or maybe 3 bantam eggs would provide some numbers to guarantee a better outcome.
2. I'm going to have to layer 1/4" fencing about 16" from ground level around the perimeter. It will be a lot of work but it should also keep snakes out which has been a concern of me since the mom and hatchling took to the floor of the coop.
3. Isolate mom from the flock during brooding, and for a few weeks after hatching. I can't explain why my other bantam hen attacked this morning, but isolation will keep me from gambling that it won't happen again.

The whole purpose of having chickens isn't for meat or eggs. It's to enjoy behaviors of animals that as a suburbanite I never met except on a plate. But living in the country reminds me that Tennyson's "nature, red in tooth and claw" is a fact of life out here, and while we may not like it, it is what it is.