Aggressive pullets/hens

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Many young hens will have a surge of hormones as well as attitude when they start laying. They usually calm down after a month or so.

It can help to add things so the other birds can get away and to break up their line of sight, just putting a plywood wall in the middle of the coop or run can give birds a relief from being harassed, otherwise thing to get up on and under or in can all help too. Scattering food widely is an option to make sure everyone can eat. Think of your girls as moody teenagers.

 

[Brookliner]

Eating feathers sounds like she is lacking in protein. Give them some dried meal worms and some black oil sunflower seed as treats. Both are high in protein.

 

[vicki017]

Many young hens will have a surge of hormones as well as attitude when they start laying. They usually calm down after a month or so.

It can help to add things so the other birds can get away and to break up their line of sight, just putting a plywood wall in the middle of the coop or run can give birds a relief from being harassed, otherwise thing to get up on and under or in can all help too. Scattering food widely is an option to make sure everyone can eat. Think of your girls as moody teenagers.

Eating feathers sounds like she is lacking in protein. Give them some dried meal worms and some black oil sunflower seed as treats. Both are high in protein.

We do feed them worms almost everyday but maybe not enough! So we will try feeding them some more as well as adding some more perches. On the bright side I'm still getting eggs from the ones being picked on so it must not be stressful to them I hope. Thank you for your responses! I feel kind of like a mother hen worrying too much.

 

[vicki017]

So we used antibiotic cream and Vaseline on the areas that they get picked on but now one of my chickens has a wound from being pecked on. We gave them more perches and 2 bowls of each type of food far away from each other. The one who pecks is the biggest and will eat anything and everything. I'm worried if maybe she's cannabistic? I've also used my fingers to peck her back every time she pecks someone to try to discourage though like everything else we tried it worked for a little bit but she eventually goes back to pecking everyone again. Is there anything else I can do? She just seems to want to eat feathers no matter what I do

 

[vicki017]

Anyone?

 

[vicki017]

This is a picture I just took of the wound the one has gotten from the other

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

This is a picture I just took of the wound the one has gotten from the other

What are you feeding them and how big is your set up.

Most pecking like that is from crowding or boredom. Occasionally they could have a protein deficiency.

Usually it's a very busy animal being kept in a pen with nothing to do. If you don't have the ability to let your birds range daily you will need to find things to keep them occupied and busy throughout the day, so they are too tired to pick on each other.

You also need to provide areas where the lower birds can get away from the dominant birds. 5 feet is the distance I have observed being the closest they can be.

I use bluekote on wounds like that to hide the skin and blood color which will attract more pecking.

 

[vicki017]

What are you feeding them and how big is your set up.

Most pecking like that is from crowding or boredom. Occasionally they could have a protein deficiency.

Usually it's a very busy animal being kept in a pen with nothing to do. If you don't have the ability to let your birds range daily you will need to find things to keep them occupied and busy throughout the day, so they are too tired to pick on each other.

You also need to provide areas where the lower birds can get away from the dominant birds. 5 feet is the distance I have observed being the closest they can be.

I use bluekote on wounds like that to hide the skin and blood color which will attract more pecking.

Well I stated most of this in this post but it's a 12 by 12 area with perches at different heights as well as the roof to the hen house and mini run they can jump on in the middle, they get worms, fruits, corn, regular food, corn out barely mixture and bread is what I can remember right now. We did use blue dye and they still want to peck because they want to help her clean it off. The bird who pecks will even peck between eating different foods so I'm not sure if it's from boredom.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

They could be lacking protein. What type of ration are you feeding. Sorry I did see you already explained your set up before. If you are feeding layer than they are probably protein deficit with all they extras they get. Try switching to an all flock or non medicated grower, something with 18-20% protein. Daily protein intake shouldn't fall be 16% which layer is. Feeding other things dilutes the total daily protein. So maybe a change in feed type might help, as well as limiting low protein extras.

 

[vicki017]

They could be lacking protein. What type of ration are you feeding. Sorry I did see you already explained your set up before. If you are feeding layer than they are probably protein deficit with all they extras they get. Try switching to an all flock or non medicated grower, something with 18-20% protein. Daily protein intake shouldn't fall be 16% which layer is. Feeding other things dilutes the total daily protein. So maybe a change in feed type might help, as well as limiting low protein extras.

Wouldn't the dried meal worms I feed them help? I'm not sure how much I feed them of it today but I give them enough to where everyone gets some