Yes, chickens sometimes kill chicks. But I couldn’t find a vet or extension source that calls it normal for a healthy mother hen to kill her own brood. What the sources describe is narrower than that. A hen that isn’t in mother mode may shy away from chicks or go after them. Other hens in your flock can pick on chicks that aren’t theirs. And once a chick bleeds, pecking can turn into cannibalism. So if you find a chick hurt or dead, the useful questions are whether a bird did it at all, which one, and what set her off.
I rewrote this page from 16 sources, and they’re all listed at the bottom. The pecking side comes from the Merck Veterinary Manual and from Dr. Jacquie Jacob at the University of Kentucky, plus extension guides from Kansas State and Nebraska. Broodiness comes from Kentucky too. How a hen takes to chicks comes from four studies by Marie-Annick Richard-Yris, Gérard Leboucher and colleagues (from 1987 and 1991), and from a review of mother-hen research. An extension answer from Oregon State and an extension article from Arizona fill in the practical side. So do a study of hens in Nigeria, a village study from Tanzania and a hatching guide from the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization. When something is my own call, I label it “My call” so you can tell it apart from the sources. We aren’t vets.
The old page opened with a story about collecting eggs and finding a chick “huddled in the corner” while “its ma” pecked at it. I can’t show that happened, so it’s gone. The old page also said a hen kills a chick that looks sick or scrawny, because “culling the defective chick means more resources for the healthy ones”. It said she might “shut the noisy chick up permanently” to keep predators away, and it had a whole section called “Flock First Philosophy” about the group outranking family. I found no source for any of that, and it’s gone too.
The old page said “at least 2 square feet of space per bird” would let chickens “live together harmoniously”. Merck’s minimum for a laying hen is about 1.5 to 2 square feet inside the coop, plus 8 to 10 in the run. But I found no source that promises a peaceful flock at any number. More on space below. The old page also said a stressed hen gets better with “some deep breathing” and rest. That’s gone.
A word on the photos. All six are by Tamsin Cooper on Flickr, who released them into the public domain. They show hens with chicks, taken in 2013 and 2019. None of them shows a hurt chick, on purpose.
The short version.
- Some pecking is normal while a flock sorts out its order. A broody hen pecking at you is normal too.
- In one study, hens already sitting on eggs took to newly hatched chicks right away. In another, hens that weren’t mothering yet and were given chicks by day avoided or attacked them at first.
- Hens given chicks under them at night started mothering sooner than hens given chicks by day.
- Other hens are a risk. Mixing birds of different ages or sizes often upsets the pecking order.
- Blood can draw more pecking. Get a hurt chick out of the flock right away, and call a vet who sees poultry if it’s badly hurt.
- My call: keep the hen and chicks in their own pen where the flock can see them, until the chicks are about the hens’ size. Arizona’s extension office gives the same advice for bought chicks joining a flock.
Is It Normal for a Hen to Kill Her Chicks?
Honestly, some mild pecking is normal while a flock sorts out its order. Jacob writes that chickens sort themselves into a pecking order and that “Mild pecking is normal in the establishment of this order”. Arizona’s extension office says the same about bringing young birds into a flock: “some pecking and squawking is normal to establish a new pecking order”.
And a broody hen is meant to be fierce. Kentucky’s broodiness guide says that when you come near a broody hen on her nest, “she will peck at you and fiercely protect her territory”. The review by Edgar and colleagues says broody hens “aggressively defend the nest area”. A 2022 study of Nigerian hens notes in its introduction that after hatching, hens show maternal aggression, which it calls “necessary to protect their chicks from environmental threats such as humans and predators”.
My call: that temper points outward, at you or a dog or a raccoon. Nothing I read describes it turned on her own brood.
Now for the worry that a hen killed her own chicks. I found no source that shows whether, or how often, that happens in backyard flocks, so I can’t tell you it’s rare or common. But what I did find is a reminder that chicks die of plenty of other things. A study in three villages in Morogoro, Tanzania, followed 4,197 free-range chicks (61 households across the three villages) from hatch to six weeks. It found that 53 percent were lost. The keepers put 55 percent of those losses down to predation and 30 percent to illness. Those are village flocks in Tanzania, and the causes were the keepers’ own calls, so take it as a reminder, not a number for your yard.
My call: a dead chick with peck marks isn’t proof its mother killed it. Jacob writes that fowl “will peck at injured, impaired, or dead birds in their pens as a result of the social order and their natural curiosity”. A chick that died of something else can still get pecked afterward.
A Hen Has to Be in Mother Mode First
Turns out broodiness in hens runs on hormones. Kentucky’s broodiness guide puts it this way: “The same hormones that prepare a mammal to lactate after birth cause broodiness in hens”. It also says the peeping of hatched chicks is what tells a broody hen she’s done sitting.
That matters when you hand chicks to a hen. In a 1991 study by Leboucher and colleagues, newly hatched chicks went into the nests of 10 hens that were sitting on eggs. Those hens showed “immediate maternal responses”, brooding the chicks and giving the mother’s call.
Hens that weren’t already mothering did worse at first. One of Richard-Yris and Leboucher’s 1987 studies put chicks in with hens at the start of the lit part of the day (the researchers call it the photophase). Those chicks didn’t get mothered right away. The hens’ maternal responses came “after a 24 h delay”, and before that the “hens first avoided or were aggressive towards chicks”. When the chicks were slipped under the hens during the night instead, “the majority of adults presented maternal behaviour the following morning”.
Their other papers add two things. Hens took to young chicks faster: maternal behaviour “emerged sooner in hens confined with younger chicks”, and brooding went mainly to chicks one or two days old. And hens differ a lot. A third paper found “an important difference between hens concerning their delay in adopting”. It also found that each hen stayed about as quick, or as slow, from one test to the next. So one hen may take to chicks much faster than another. My call: her past record is the best guide you’ve got.
A UN farming guide says much the same in plainer words. It says to pick a broody hen “with a good brooding and mothering record”. And once she has sat for some days, she “can be given some newly hatched chicks and, if they are accepted, the original eggs can be removed”. Note the “if” (that little word is doing a lot of work). If your hen is sitting on her own eggs, try our egg incubation calculator. Its “Under a broody hen” setting gives you her hatch date, day 21 for chicken eggs.
My call: give chicks to a hen that’s already broody, slip them under her after dark, use chicks a day or two old, and check on her first thing the next morning.
Why Other Hens Go After Chicks
Your chicks won’t stay in the nest long. Leboucher and colleagues note that “soon after hatching, the mother hen leaves the nest with her chicks”. That puts them near the other grown hens, and those hens aren’t primed to mother them. The 1991 study found that even hens that had sat on eggs and mothered newly hatched chicks earlier in the study didn’t hold on to their readiness to mother. The authors read that as a guard against hens mothering chicks that aren’t theirs.
The review by Edgar and colleagues says hens keep the brood “as a discreet unit” out at the edge of the flock, and keep mothering until the chicks are around 5 to 12 weeks old. My call: that distance also keeps your chicks away from the other hens.
Three extension guides warn about mixing. Jacob writes that “Combining birds of different ages, breeds, colors, or sizes that have not been reared together often upsets the social order of a flock and increases the chances of cannibalism”. Kansas State says nearly the same thing, word for word in places, and Nebraska lists “Keeping different ages or colors together” among the causes. My call: chicks are the youngest and smallest birds in your run, so I’d expect them to be at the most risk.
Weight counts too. Jacob says birds that get pushed off the feeder end up underweight, and “such birds are frequently the victims of cannibalism”. My call: make sure your chicks can get to the feed without being pushed off it.
Sometimes there’s no reason you can find. An Oregon State extension answer about grown hens ganging up on one flockmate (four hens, three of them against the fourth) says the behavior “occurs from time to time with no apparent reason for it to occur”.
What Sets Off Pecking in the First Place
Merck’s chapter on cannibalism says “No single cause of cannibalism in poultry has been identified, but genetics, crowding, excessive light intensity, and nutritional imbalances are correlated with its occurrence”. It adds too little feeder space, missing minerals or vitamins, skin injuries, and “failure to remove any dead birds daily”. Watch your chicks for blood. Merck says “Appearance of blood on the exposed skin may induce more pecking and lead to death”.
If your chicks are in a brooder instead of under a hen, Jacob gives numbers for heat and light. “High temperatures cause birds to become uncomfortable and prone to pecking”, she writes. Brood them at 95 degrees Fahrenheit the first week after hatching, then drop 5 degrees a week until you reach 70 or the outside temperature. Measure it at the height of the chicks’ backs, right under the heat, and don’t heat the whole brooder, so a chick that’s too warm can move away. She also says to “Never use a white bulb more powerful than 40 W to brood fowl” (a red or infrared bulb is her pick if you need more heat), and to give no more than 16 hours of light a day.
Then there’s space. Merck gives laying hens a minimum of about 1.5 to 2 square feet inside the coop and 8 to 10 in the run, and says “Overcrowding should be avoided”. Kansas State says something that surprised me: “Total square feet of space allowed per bird is not that important; birds are highly gregarious”. What it cares about is room at the feeder, the waterer and the nest, so the birds lower in the pecking order aren’t kept away from feed and water. If you’re building, our post on chicken coop ideas lines up the extension guides’ space numbers side by side.
Plus there’s feed. Jacob says feed short on protein, “particularly the amino acid methionine”, makes birds pick feathers. She says to give “a diet that is balanced appropriately for the age and types of fowl you are raising”, and that protein needs change as chicks grow. My call: buy the bag the feed store sells for your chicks’ age, and give enough feeder room that the smallest chick can eat at the same time as the biggest one.
What to Do the Moment You See It
When you see it, move fast. Merck says control steps “must be implemented as soon as signs are noticed, because once this habit gets established it is difficult to eliminate”. Jacob’s guide and Nebraska’s both say the birds doing the pecking, the hurt ones and the dead ones should all come out of the flock quickly.
My call on the order: get the hurt chick out first, into a box or a small pen of its own, because blood can draw more pecking. If it’s bleeding or badly hurt, call a vet who sees poultry. I’m not giving treatments here, and that’s the vet’s job. If one bird is doing the pecking, pull her out too. If a chick has died in the coop, take it out the same day. Our page on whether chickens will eat a dead flockmate covers why that matters and how to handle the body.
My call, if it’s the mother hen pecking her own new chicks: take the chicks out and keep them warm in a brooder. Richard-Yris and Leboucher’s hens went from avoiding or attacking chicks to mothering them in about a day, and the night-time swap worked faster than the daytime one. Those were hens given chicks to mother, though, not a mother turning on her own hatch. So it’s a long shot, but I’d try her once more after dark with the chicks slipped under her. If she goes after them again the next morning, raise them in the brooder.
If it’s grown hens going after chicks, put a barrier between them. Oregon State’s answer has a warning that bears on this, though it’s about grown birds: “If you remove the bird, it will be worse when trying to reintroduce the bird to the flock”. My call: that’s why the setup below keeps chicks where the flock can see them, instead of out of sight.
Setting Up So It Doesn’t Happen
The photographer titled this one “The nursery pen”. My call: that’s the idea to copy, a small pen for the hen and her chicks where your flock can see them but can’t reach them. Arizona’s extension office says to “allow your new birds to be near the flock with physical separation between them”. The barrier “can be just the coop fence, a play pen, or a dog kennel that the chicks can’t get out of, and the hens can’t get in”. Once the chicks “are around the same size as the hens”, you can start mixing them in without it. Stay close and break up any big fights.
Now, Arizona’s advice is written for bought chicks joining your flock, and it adds two steps. Keep new birds, chicks included, in quarantine for 4 weeks, far enough from your flock that they don’t share the same air. And have extra waterers and feeders ready for when they mix, plus more roost space, so there’s room for everyone.
Perches help the bird being picked on. Merck lists “providing perches as a refuge for targeted birds”. Our roost guide goes through Jacob’s perch advice, which puts the lowest bar about 3 feet up so birds on the floor can’t reach the one sitting on it. It also passes on her point that chicks raised without perches have a harder time using them later.
If you have to raise chicks without a hen and mix them in later, Kansas State’s advice is to “start rearing the birds together at the earliest age possible, then slowly allow them increased contact time”. The mother-hen review gives you a reason to let a hen do the raising when you can: “Chicks reared by a mother hen are less fearful” than chicks raised without one, and on commercial farms the more fearful chicks are more likely to start feather pecking.
Last, give it time, even if you’re itching to open the gate. Edgar and colleagues put the end of mothering at around 5 to 12 weeks, and the Nigerian study gives the same range for natural weaning. My call: leave the hen and her chicks in their own pen until she’s done with them and they’re close to her size. Only then open the gate.
Sources
- Dr. Jacquie Jacob, University of Kentucky, for poultry.extension.org: Feather Pecking and Cannibalism in Small and Backyard Poultry Flocks.
- Rocio Crespo, Merck Veterinary Manual (2023, updated 2024): Cannibalism in Poultry.
- Yuko Sato, Merck Veterinary Manual (2024): Management of Backyard Poultry.
- Hasemann and Beyer, Kansas State University, MF2336: Cannibalism in the Small Poultry Flock.
- Scheideler and Shields, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, G1670 (2007): Cannibalism by Poultry.
- Jacob and Pescatore, University of Kentucky, ASC-247: Broodiness in Chickens.
- Richard-Yris and Leboucher, Bird Behavior (1987): Effects of Exposure to Chicks on Maternal Behaviour in Domestic Chickens.
- Richard-Yris and Leboucher, Bird Behavior (1987): Influence of age of chicks on maternal behaviour in domestic hens.
- Richard-Yris and Leboucher, Behavioural Processes (1987): Responses to Successive Tests of Induction of Maternal Behavior in Hens.
- Leboucher and colleagues, Ethology Ecology and Evolution (1991): Maternal behaviour in domestic hens: does previous incubating and maternal experience influence maternal responsiveness?
- Edgar and colleagues, Animals (2016): Influences of Maternal Care on Chicken Welfare.
- Iyasere and colleagues, Frontiers in Veterinary Science (2022): Nigerian indigenous hens show more discomfort-related behavior with visual separation than physical separation from their chicks.
- Alfred and colleagues, Livestock Research for Rural Development (2012): Causes of losses in free range local chickens following control of Newcastle disease in three villages in Morogoro, Tanzania.
- Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations: Small-scale poultry production, Chapter 5: Incubation and Hatching.
- James Hermes, Oregon State University Extension (2016, reviewed 2024): How to change my chicken’s behavior?
- Katie H. Spanyers, University of Arizona Cooperative Extension (2026): New chicks and old flocks.
Sources checked October 31, 2026. The calls on this page are mine, and I’ve marked each one. We aren’t vets. If a bird is hurt or looks sick, call a vet who sees poultry.
Related read: How to Raise Chickens for Eggs — Instant PDF download. Secure checkout by Stripe
