Baby Budgies attacked by mother

Question
Our hen just had her first babies a a little over a month ago. four of the five babies have come out of the nestbox, all within the last week, most recently today. We went outside this morning to check on them as always and the first two babies were sitting at the bottom of the cage covered in blood. The third one has slight damage to its foot, but isn't as bad off (it can still fly and stand etc where as the others wont move from the bottom) We've separated them all from their mother now and put the two that were worse off in a cage together and the third and fourth one in a cage together. Is there anything I should do for the two really bad ones? I'm also not sure if the fourth baby even knows how to eat on its own yet, but we couldn't leave it in there knowing it could end up like the others. Should we be feeding that baby anything special, or just hope it learns to eat from the other baby its with? Why would the mother even do this? Anyway any advice would be great, just not sure what else to do!

Answer
 Kelly,

There is no clear reason why Budgies attack their young and other budgies. Research has shown that animals have their own heirarchy, they do things that are unreasonable to reasonable people. You settled the first bit of the problem, seperation is a must in these incidents. Now that you have them seperated, you will need to care for their medical needs. An avian vet is your best bet, second best bet would be a general vet. Your baby bird that you are unsure about eating, you would need to provide a handfeeding formula to him/her. At one month old, you can probably get away with feeding once in the morning and attempting to feed once in the evening. If he/she is gobbling up the food, it is not eating otherwise and you should continue to hand feed until you see the bird eating and drinking on it's own.

To keep the injured birds comfortable, you could try providing a heating pad under half of the cage. Half of the cage is important, you do not want to overheat them. Providing a warm place for the budgie will help comfort them. Secondly, you should address any wounds that they have. If they are bleeding (most budgies will bleed out and die very fast, within hours), you should control the bleeding with some form of quick clot compound or direct pressure from a wound dressing.

If you need any further assistance in doing any assessment of your birds health, I would strongly recommend getting in contact with a vet in your area for some medical advice, possible antibiotics, etc.

Best of luck,
  Chris