4 hens die and their hind ends disembowel

[All About Chicken]

Hello new to posting but have read a lot useful posts. My problem is I have had 4 hens die and their hind ends disembowel. This seem to happen very fast so I watched very close and discovered my roosters were the problem. Once there was a bad spot all the others just attacked until well she was dead:-( So I thinned out the Roosters… left one. That seem to work for a short time, but the other day I found one more and the rooster attacked my 3 year old Daughter as we both were in the coop getting eggs. Well I fix that too… So all was calm for about a week and today I noticed a very, very large egg that had blood all over it. So I started counting and watching and found one that clearly had been picked on dirty neck and a nasty dried bloody hind end. So I set out to catch her… not easy to catch just one specific one! I have her now in a dog kennel. My wife and I cleaned her up with just water but now I need to know what else? Can you help me in this? We are very new to this started this March. Thanks for any help on this. Bob

 

[okiedrifter]

Bob if that was going on here I would first look to see if they were bored...alot of people think chickens are just dumb animals and should live in a tiny cage and be happy for the rest of their lives as long as we feed and water them.....Chickens are quite social and love to run and play and look around....at the present time mine are all loose on 3 acres chasing grasshoppers and having the time of their lives....when I want purebred eggs I will lock em up in smaller cages....then the boredem will set in.....at our local feed store they sell a can of spray called Blue lotion anytime the chickens start to pick at one I will spray it with this stuff it covers the area with a blue mist...and it must taste bad cuz they dont go back for more....if your chickens are in a small pen get them something to play with.... or let them free range while you watch....

 

[Erin~TheChickenLover]

First of all,

from Arkansas!
You have a serious problem here, and I hate to break it to you, but the rooster is not the problem. Sounds to me like you do not have half enough space for each bird. If they do not have enough space, they start picking on each other and can even turn to cannibalism. Each chicken needs 4 square feet of space in the coop and 10 square foot outside in the run. Less is ONLY okay if they are let out to free range or if they are bantams. If you can not give them more room, I can give you a few ideas. You can put in perches and such. Perches will give the birds a chance to get away from the others. I mean come on, even people get sick of each other, right? Make sure the food is spread out in different feeders, and the water as well. This will ensure that each bird has access and do not have to fight for food or water. You can let them out to free range. Or, you could get rid of some of them. I hope you can get this problem fixed. Good luck.

 

[equinefaith]

Great advice here. I dealt with this happening with our last set of Golden Sexlings. Not enough space and they began picking at each other.

 

[All About Chicken]

Thanks I will try the blue mist stuff. Hopefully they have it at the chain farm store… Although I do have them in a gage area it does provides them with about 10 square feet per bird not counting the 100 sq ft foot under the coop so that they can keep cool. I read that they only needed 3 to 4 sq ft but thought that was to small and added more. I live in the Boone docks with 1800 acres across from me with wild life that will kill them even with the dogs that seem to look over them. I have let them out of the run a few times and will much more once the garden is done and will be very soon. I’m a displaced city guy that found and moved to this place to raise a family from. So now we are trying our hand at some real farming with the kids it is fun but a lot more work than we thought. Thanks for the help!

 

[All About Chicken]

Well Thanks I bought the Blue spray and put it on the one chicken they seem to pick on her but soon after a mouth full of that stuff they stopped. I also opened the gate and they are now free in the yard. The dog look a little troubled over this so I will have to keep an eye on her. I really want to thank all of you for the advice and look forward in participating on other posts. We plan on expanding a bit more next year but really need to get it together a little more before.