Chicken attacked by flock during night

[StephanieC]

Ok, so now the five chickens have 66" of roost bar, and they are choosing to be all bunched up into about half of it. I guess the point is that they have a choice to have more room?

I have Cuda in with the flock, and she has been with them almost all day. So far she is still intact, although there was one nasty exchange where the top hen (my most mature and only laying hen) threw open her wings, squawked and jumped Cuda over a piece of honeydew melon, but no blood drawn. That hen is the one who probably could benefit from jail time, and I may do it tomorrow.

They are all roosted for the night, and I pray it goes well for Cuda. If not, it may be chicken diaper and become a house chicken. She is, of course, my favorite. I don't like the looks of the Barred Rock, but I love the personality, intelligence and temperament.

Question: Cuda is clearly at the bottom of the pecking order, the others make that quite clear. So why, when she has a piece of melon and a dominant hen moves in on it, why doesn't Cuda have the sense to back off?

Question 2: The night that Cuda was attacked to the point of losing at least two tablespoons of blood, why didn't she jump down the ramp to the lower level to get away? Why did she stay on the roost bar and let herself be attacked?

 

[iwiw60]

Your girls will soon "spread out" .. they've been so used to being "bunched up" that it's a hard habit to break!

As for Cuda well......she's a chicken, and she wanted that piece of melon! Chickens...go figure....who knows what they're thinking. I think you will see a big difference now that you've enlarged their roost space...give it time...patience, grasshopper!!

 

[StephanieC]

Cuda made it through the night, and the morning is going well. Hopefully we are in the clear.

If I bring Cuda onto my porch for special treats, like to allow her to get high value treats like mealworms without getting pecked, will that cause her trouble with the flock? Like make them jealous and treat her worse because of it? I think part of the reason she is so small and immature may be because she simply doesn't get enough to eat.

 

[iwiw60]

Cuda made it through the night, and the morning is going well. Hopefully we are in the clear.

If I bring Cuda onto my porch for special treats, like to allow her to get high value treats like mealworms without getting pecked, will that cause her trouble with the flock? Like make them jealous and treat her worse because of it? I think part of the reason she is so small and immature may be because she simply doesn't get enough to eat.

YAY!!

I'm so glad to hear that everything went well last night! As for special treats, I would think yes, the others are a lot smarter than we give them credit for. What I would do is make up 2 or even 3 little treat dishes and place them spaced apart from each other by several feet. . That way everyone gets a treat and Cuda will, too. I realize she is your fav but you don't want the others to feel left out.

Have a great day and do let me know how it goes today!!

 

[bluebirdnanny]

These photos show the upstairs roosting area of my coop, which is professionally built and sold as a 6-9 chicken coop. The center roosting bar is 42" long, the full length of the coop is 66", the full width at the bottom is 42". You can see I have nests in two corners.

I hope this helps. If my coop is too small, I will be seriously ticked off, because I spent many weeks researching before settling on this one. The guy who sells these teaches Chicken 101 classes for backyard chicken owners and seems very knowledgable.

I have never noticed much pecking order behavior with this flock, nothing that would concern me at all. One of the chickens is pretty rough on my dog, but not on the other chickens.

Cuda is the smallest in my flock, and seems to be the one stuff happens to. She was almost lost to a hawk when they were chicks.

I confess I did not read past this post as I have to leave and you may have gotten your answer already.
1. Commercial coops that say 6-9 MIGHT handle 2-3 no more.
2. BluKote is an antiseptic spray and covers the red color so it helps healing and doesn't draw attention like the color red does.
3. Separate quarters until healed and then when you reintroduce, do it in free ranging time, so they will be busy and she has room to run if needed.

 

[StephanieC]

I just wanted to say thank you for all the helpful advice I got on this thread.

I am happy to report that Cuda is fine and doing well at the bottom of the pecking order. She is smarter than any of the other chickens, in my opinion, and does pretty well for herself. She has excellent instincts for how to maximize her food intake while minimizing her pecking from senior hens. And she fills herself up after the others have gone on to other things.

I will never know exactly what happened that night in the coop. Perhaps she already had an injury that I hadn't seen. Or perhaps it was the tight space like you all said. In any case, I much prefer the new set up with the coop I had.

I have three chickens laying in the two nest boxes in the lower half of the coop, and it all works out very well. They still sleep all bunched up, but perhaps just knowing they have the space has made all the difference. Cuda is still quite immature physically and will doubtless be the last to lay an egg, but she seems healthy and happy and is very tight these days with the next up in rank, the Easter Egger Honey. Honey actually spends more time with Cuda than with her Easter Egger sister, who is third in the pecking order.

Chickens are never dull!

 

[welasharon]

It's so nice when things end up well!

 

[iwiw60]

I just wanted to say thank you for all the helpful advice I got on this thread.

I am happy to report that Cuda is fine and doing well at the bottom of the pecking order. She is smarter than any of the other chickens, in my opinion, and does pretty well for herself. She has excellent instincts for how to maximize her food intake while minimizing her pecking from senior hens. And she fills herself up after the others have gone on to other things.

I will never know exactly what happened that night in the coop. Perhaps she already had an injury that I hadn't seen. Or perhaps it was the tight space like you all said. In any case, I much prefer the new set up with the coop I had.

I have three chickens laying in the two nest boxes in the lower half of the coop, and it all works out very well. They still sleep all bunched up, but perhaps just knowing they have the space has made all the difference. Cuda is still quite immature physically and will doubtless be the last to lay an egg, but she seems healthy and happy and is very tight these days with the next up in rank, the Easter Egger Honey. Honey actually spends more time with Cuda than with her Easter Egger sister, who is third in the pecking order.

Chickens are never dull!

Stephanie, I am so happy that things are working out well for both you and your girls! I'm glad I could help out a little, and wish you all the very best!! Please DO let me know when Cuda lays her first egg!!

 

[ekavi]

Ooooooo yah. We have road island reds. They pecked at babs and tore her cone. She is healed but we wont isolate her but put bunty In chicken jail. Good grief. This thread got me laughing and sad.

 

[StephanieC]

Wow, this was a surprise after all this time.

Sadly, Cuda disappeared without a trace a while after this thread ended. She turned out to have genetic problems and never matured, so that first egg never came. And then she was gone. A hawk, we presume.