SaraStidham
Hatching
- Jul 27, 2017
- 2
- 0
- 2
Background: I have two hens in my backyard farm. They were both raised from chicks in the same area and with the same amount of handling. They have a small coop with a small run, but are frequently out in a chicken tractor or sometimes free ranging in the backyard for a couple hours at a time. The coop with attached run that's 2'x8', and the tractor is 3'x8'. They lay pretty regularly, but do sometimes stop in hot weather or cold. (I live in Sacramento and we get from 30 degree weather to 110 degree weather.) They're about 2 years old and were inseparable up until about 10 months ago when my Orpington started to get aggressive towards everyone-- pecking her sister, going after human feet, and pecking hands. When we pick up our sweet, meek Wyandotte, our Orpington tries to attack us.
All of a sudden, my Wyandotte was losing a lot of feathers on her head, neck, and back and we didn't know why. After watching the girls, my Orpington was pecking at her and pulling out feathers. They both were eating the smaller feathers, so after some research on BYC I thought it was a protein deficiency on both parts. We gave them cat food daily, scrambled eggs with some eggshells in there, and it started to get better. Wyandotte got some pin feathers back for about a month and then lost them. We thought it might be a very hard molt and Orpington was taking advantage of it, but O's aggressive behavior was not normal for our sweet girl. We tried dying W's bald head blue and that also worked for a little while, but it didn't stick either. We also tried spraying W's whole body with bitter apple spray (that stuff is NASTY!) but again, it was short-lived success. She would start to get pin feathers and a few tiny little feathers, but couldn't keep them very long before O started to notice. The pecking is typically curious pecking, but turns aggressive very quickly.
Eventually, W grew back all of her feathers and they were happy happy ladies! We thought that maybe all they needed was time and a combination of all of our efforts (cat food, eggs, dye, apple spray, and some hanging cabbage to play with).
W kept her beautiful feathers for about 2 months but now O is extremely aggressive AGAIN. She's chasing W, and is acting a bit like a rooster with her attacks. Poor W is hiding underneath their waterer, in the corner, but as soon as she moves O is back on her. They never spend any time apart so I don't think it's a pecking order issue, especially since W never fights back, she just takes the abuse. I feel like we have tried everything! Is this just an issue of boredom or not enough space?
Any advice is greatly appreciated! I just want our girls to get along and for us all to stop being scared of our Orpington hen. Thank you!
All of a sudden, my Wyandotte was losing a lot of feathers on her head, neck, and back and we didn't know why. After watching the girls, my Orpington was pecking at her and pulling out feathers. They both were eating the smaller feathers, so after some research on BYC I thought it was a protein deficiency on both parts. We gave them cat food daily, scrambled eggs with some eggshells in there, and it started to get better. Wyandotte got some pin feathers back for about a month and then lost them. We thought it might be a very hard molt and Orpington was taking advantage of it, but O's aggressive behavior was not normal for our sweet girl. We tried dying W's bald head blue and that also worked for a little while, but it didn't stick either. We also tried spraying W's whole body with bitter apple spray (that stuff is NASTY!) but again, it was short-lived success. She would start to get pin feathers and a few tiny little feathers, but couldn't keep them very long before O started to notice. The pecking is typically curious pecking, but turns aggressive very quickly.
Eventually, W grew back all of her feathers and they were happy happy ladies! We thought that maybe all they needed was time and a combination of all of our efforts (cat food, eggs, dye, apple spray, and some hanging cabbage to play with).
W kept her beautiful feathers for about 2 months but now O is extremely aggressive AGAIN. She's chasing W, and is acting a bit like a rooster with her attacks. Poor W is hiding underneath their waterer, in the corner, but as soon as she moves O is back on her. They never spend any time apart so I don't think it's a pecking order issue, especially since W never fights back, she just takes the abuse. I feel like we have tried everything! Is this just an issue of boredom or not enough space?
Any advice is greatly appreciated! I just want our girls to get along and for us all to stop being scared of our Orpington hen. Thank you!
