The mother and chicks are called a brood. At night, the mother pulls out her wings and little chicks get under them to keep warm. The mother and chicks squat down and are hard to see when the mother sounds an alarm. The mother also has brood calls to gather her chicks. Fifty percent of the prairie chickens' nests are destroyed by predators.
Egg predators are snakes, foxes, coyotes, and especially opossums, raccoons, and skunks.
Fifty percent of the remaining chicks will die. Around 1990, inbreeding became a problem, so prairie chickens from other states were introduced to increase genetic diversiry.