Sitting hen killed her chicks ???

[KellyAndMark]

One of our hens we had sitting on eggs has killed the only two chicks that hatched so far. We came home to find both chicks outside the nest, one still alive, but the other one's head was pecked complete open and it appears that she may have eaten the brains. The other chick we decided to put back under her, without having any other option on hand, and sat for hours watching her. Every time the chick would peep the hen would start looking around like it was scared and even got up a few times to look. It later seemed to get used to the noise and calmed down , and even fell asleep,, so we finally went in. This morning the chick was still under her, but dead. It looks like it had gotten squished.

Why would a hen sit on eggs for 3 weeks then have no idea what to do when the eggs hatched? This is the first time this hen has sat.

 

[Free Feather]

She went broody because of a hormone, not because she wanted babies. She likely had no idea what would come from sitting on the eggs. She just wanted to because something ancient in her was telling her to.

 

[lazy gardener]

So sorry for your loss. That's a tragic end for such high hopes! The brooding and mothering instinct has been bred out of many breeds in the name of higher production. Broody hens don't produce, so they have been eliminated from the breeding programs. Over many generations, the ability has been lost. The good news is that it doesn't take many generations of selective breeding to bring it back. I would see to it that she is never allowed to brood eggs again, and I would see to it that I don't hatch any of her eggs. I wish you the best in future attempts. It sounds like you might like to use a broody as your main means of flock production? How many other eggs does she have? Can you bring them in and incubate them, and brood them artificially?

 

[KellyAndMark]

Thanks , free feather

Lazy gardener, she is actually a hen raised by a very good mother hen we have, who just hatched another bunch a few weeks ago and is currently taking care of them. We have about 12 hens laying so it's hard to tell who's eggs are who's, and we have done the incubator thing a few times, . but we actually stopped because we thought hatching them naturally so they would have a mom would be better.. Apparently not with this girl !

If any more hatch we should try relocating them into the brooder?

 

[lazy gardener]

I would. and if you have an incubator, I'd pull the eggs before they hatch. I think it's unusual that as a dtr of a good broody, she should prove to be such a dud. I set eggs from my bator under a first time broody a few weeks ago. They had just internally pipped, so were making noises when I set them. She sat on the nest until morning, then abandoned the nest, leaving one chick screaming. There was an other egg that had started, and she had pulled about 1/2 of the shell off and apparently eaten the shell. I brought the cold chick, the exposed membrane egg, and the remaining 2 eggs in, and stuck them back in the bator. She apparently was in love with the idea of brooding golf balls... but noisy squawking chicks... no thanks!

 

[AthenasOwl]

I am dealing with 2 of my 4 brooding hens being exactly like this also. Losing chicks because of a vicious mom is very disheartening. Interesting to note, though, the hens that seem nice and not aggressive seem to be better moms..I don't know if that is a sign or not since I have only dealt with 5 brooding hens so far, and don't have a lot of info as of yet on the hens. Now I am looking to break their broody streak, because I don't want to find anymore dead chicks.

I have the 2 good Moms in our walk in shower right now with their chicks. They seem to be happy and content and are very doting on the chicks. Not an ideal situation, but I don't have a brooder room for them in the coop, and I am realizing that by not having one makes it nearly impossible for the Mom to do her job the way that it needs to be done, I don't like coming up on dead chicks, especially when it was my lack of foresight that did it...I have had many sleepless nights because of it..not fun.

I agree with lazy gardener..take the remaining eggs and put them in the incubator..if she has killed 2 she will kill more.

Colette

 

[KellyAndMark]

Bad luck is turning into worst luck here,. I turned the incubator on as soon as I got home, and it's not coming up to temp!!! We just used it a month ago, no idea what's going on with it. One of the eggs was pipped,. So we took that one and two other ones we candled and showed movement and put them down in the other coop under a silkie that has been sitting on a couple eggs. And now I'm not entirely sure she'll know what to do,. Here's to hoping we get at least one keeper out of this mess !

 

[KellyAndMark]

And thanks for the replies, we'll keep you updated

 

[KellyAndMark]

SO.. this got weird. We had 4 older chicks up in that same coop that we had hatched a little while ago in our incubator, they had no mama, we built them a shelter that they hung around if they had to take cover. They've been up there for about 2 weeks on their own doing great.. then yesterdayyyyy.. we come home to find that the killer mama hen adopted them !?!!! All 4 of them were underneath her in her little spot where she had been sitting on the other eggs. We even put some corn out and she'd cluck and make all the noises shes supposed to, and break it up for them.

ALSO.. we did manage to save one of the hatching eggs! We tried it under our sitting silkie when it was pipped, but she got nervous of the noise and abandoned the nest. So since our incubator was on the frits the only option was to take the egg inside and put it under a lamp and some damp towels in a pale. Once her beak was poking out we could tell the egg was getting pretty dry, so after watching her for the afternoon not making any progress we had to help out. She spent a couple days getting strong then we decided to introduce her to her mama and the adopted older chicks.

Everyone seems to be doing just fine now...

 

[Free Feather]

Glad you got at least one chick out of the mess! Hens sometimes will sometimes adopt chicks. I have never tried chicks older than a week and a half. I just recently had a goose adopt a two week old gosling, but geese are different than chickens when it comes to babies.