Pecking Problem

[country chick13]

I am having a problem. It is not just one of my hens that is getting pecked, we have 15 hens (3 are 2 yrs old rest are almost 1 yr old). There was no major issues until we got a huge amount of snow, and the girls have been staying in their coop (their choice, they can come in and out of the coop as they please). There are a few hens that seem to be fine, but the majority of them now have patches of missing feathers, and one has some flesh wounds. I watched them and noticed that my two older RIR are the most aggressive, but they also seem to have taught the others their bad habits! I have tried adding protein to their diet, it hasn't seemed to help at all. I went to Tractor Supply yesterday to get some blu kote to see if that helps. We applied the blu kote yesterday and also hung some veggies in their coop to try and focus their pecking elsewhere.

I can't do anything about spacing until the spring, we were planning on making another coop anyway because we will be getting 15 more hens this spring (our current coop is 8x5x12). Any advice is appreciated. Thanks!

 

[vf1123]

May be a bit hungry especially in winter. Also this is fairly normal. How many in same area?

 

[country chick13]

They have access to food 24/7 and I give them different treats to scratch around for each day. We have 15 hens in the coop, there is also a run that is 15x30 surrounding the coop.

 

[Judy]

Perhaps you could rig up a temporary roofed run that would give them more space. Unfortunately this can be very difficult to stop once it gets established. Here is a thread about it

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/517547/peepers-removed-and-no-feather-picking-d/0_20#post_6586027

 

[country chick13]

Thank you, I'll check it out. How big of a coop should I have for 30 chickens? (that is how many I will have this summer). We were thinking of adding on to our existing coop to make it 8ft long, 14ft wide and 12ft high.