dcooper@rogers.comWe have a male and female who laid 6 eggs, 5 hatched, one chick died. I came home today to find the male dead in the bottom of the cage. His head was bloody like he had been pecked and when I took him out of the cage, the female came out and made a different chirp than usual. She had some blood on her face. The male had been feeding the female who was feeding the babies. All the babies are in the nesting box with the oldest chick being 4 weeks old.

Will the female feed them? Should I separate her from the babies? Any suggestions, or insight would help.

Hi Kcooper, How disappointing for you and very sad.

It must make you very mad .

Has your hen showed aggression befor this?

 

She should look after the babies but you will have to watch her because she may turn on the babies especialy when they start to come out of the nest, and ask her for food.

 

Can you look in at the babies in the nest? If so just keep your eyes and ears open I hope it all works out and good luck.

 

Also you could get hand feeding mix from your local avian vet and hand rear the chicks, if you don't want to take any chances.

 

Good luck.

Thanks for your reply. Our hen has not shown any aggression in the past and we were all a little shocked.

I have looked in the nest box and the chicks are alive.

Tonight, the hen has been eating a little cuttlebone, seed and water and then heading back to the nest box so it appears that she is feeding them. I will keep a close ear (and eye) out for the next day to be sure that they are okay. If necessary, I may have to get some hand feeding mix but I will wait until I am sure that she can't handle it on her own.

We were not here for 6 hours so we don't really know what happened to the male. Is it common for a female to kill the male? or could the injury have occured from her trying to waken him? Thanks for any comments.

sounds terrible.

I hope the hen can cope with feeding the babies alone.

Is it common for a female to kill the male? or could the injury have occured from her trying to waken him?  Thanks for any comments.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

It has never happend to me but thats not to say it doesn't happen. Your hen should cope with the feeding and your oldest chick may even help.

 

I have had a hen who got very cross with her mate when he tryed to feed the chicks it seemed that she was the only one to feed them. He just had to feed her. But normally they share the feeding, after the first week or so.

 

As I said before just watch when they start to come out you don't want her under stress with the demand feeding she may attack again.

 

Good luck and keep us posted.

A hen is capable of raising chicks on her own. Some breeders have one prize male and breed it to several hens and then the hens raise the chicks on their own. Doing this takes a lot out of a hen so a nice long rest after the chicks leave the box is required.