3 of 5 Hens with pecking injury???

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Kalthia

Kalthia

Songster
14 Years
Nov 16, 2009
81
85
136
Virginia
We are new to chickens and have had our flock outdoors for about a month. Today we went out to feed/water noticed three of the five have slight injuries to their cheeks and head combs. Looks like it just happened. We are building a coop extension this weekend (was already planned). Do I need to separate them? I have no idea how I would do that --- they are in th only housing option I have right now.
Thanks.
 
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received_2716792495129145.jpeg
 
where did you get the birds, who old are they, were they always together? What, how big a space do they live in? They need junk to hide behind so not to bully each other. Something to break eye contact. old bucket, planter... anything knee high that blocks line of sight.
edit :
lol ok thanks for the picture. A roosting bar would help and a role of 2x4" animal wire and hawk net for a larger day time run.
 
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We got day old chicks and raised them all together in my office, then garage, to the coop pictured. The coop is advertised to hold ten chickens! We love animals and will be expanding it on Sunday with a larger run.
Will the be okay - or do I need to do something drastic?
 
David61 said:
where did you get the birds, who old are they, were they always together? What, how big a space do they live in? They need junk to hide behind so not to bully each other. Something to break eye contact. old bucket, planter... anything knee high that blocks line of sight.
edit :
lol ok thanks for the picture. A roosting bar would help and a role of 2x4" animal wire and hawk net for a larger day time run.
Click to expand...
There are two roosting bars in the run and one in the coop.
 
Kalthia said:
We got day old chicks and raised them all together in my office, then garage, to the coop pictured. The coop is advertised to hold ten chickens! We love animals and will be expanding it on Sunday with a larger run.
Will the be okay - or do I need to do something drastic?
Click to expand...
Yea, the advertising for those coops takes their chickens per square foot numbers from commercial recommendations for commercial chicken houses. Commercially chickens have their beaks trimmed (many folks find this inhumane) so they can't peck each other, and they get maybe 2 sq feet per chicken in a huge chicken warehouse with maybe 1000 other chickens.

Minimum space recommendation on this forum is generally 4 sq ft in the coop and 10 sq feet in the run. Some chickens need more than that. I have a 10'x20' open air coop/run combo, and my 16 large breed chickens are still too cramped.

Whatever the manufacturer says, I'd divide it in half. So if they say 10 chickens, yea, maybe bantams? But not large fowl standard breed for sure. And that run is definately too small - glad you're expanding it!
 

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