Hello!
I am new to the forum and I have searched but didn't find much to help so far.
I have a total of 14 chickens - 4 Salmon Faverolles, 5 Welsummer (1 is a roo) and 5 Orpingtons (1 is a roo). A large open air coop and run -being in AZ they have plenty of ventilation and shade cloth over the run so they don't get too hot. Each chicken has over 4 sq feet in the cop/run and they free range in the back yard which is probably about a tenth of an acre. Plenty of space for the chicks to be full grown let alone 6 weeks old.
About a week ago I saw one of my faverolles (Champagne) had been pecked until she was bleeding on her neck. I admit she was chest bumping and flapping a lot, I know this is behavior to establish the pecking order- I let it go until blood is drawn. I pulled her out for about two days and put her into 'solitary' - And when I say solitary she was in a large carrier with her own alfalfa, water bowl, chick feed, roost, love and attention several times a day. Her neck healed up and I reintegrated her back in around bed time. I also added some extra buckets for them to play/hide in. They love buckets for some reason....
Champagne has been doing great and is actually even more friendly and has stopped chest bumping and causing chaos like she previously was.
The next morning I went into the coop and I noticed one of my Orpingtons (Tonto) was plucking feathers off of 3 of my Welsummers backs! The one Welsummer has hardly any feathers above her tail and was bleeding a little bit but no where near as bad as Champagne. I watched for a few minutes and Tonto was pulling feathers off of everyone except the other Orpingtons. She was even going after feathers on the Welsummer roo! But, didn't pull any of his out, just pecked at them. Tonto has been in 'solitary' for about 36 hours at this point because when I tried putting her back in last night (like I did with Champagne), thinking she got dropped a few spaces on the pecking order, she was right back to plucking feathers out within 5 minutes!
Tonto was hanging around the yard with me last night when everyone else was in the coop and she LOVES people, She will follow me and run into my hands for me to pick her up and hold her. All of these chickens were sent at the same time and have been raised together by me. I am having a hard time breaking her of this habit and I want her to get along with the other hens but I am quickly running out of ideas. It's almost like she likes people better than chickens!
Any help or experience is very much appreciated!
I am new to the forum and I have searched but didn't find much to help so far.
I have a total of 14 chickens - 4 Salmon Faverolles, 5 Welsummer (1 is a roo) and 5 Orpingtons (1 is a roo). A large open air coop and run -being in AZ they have plenty of ventilation and shade cloth over the run so they don't get too hot. Each chicken has over 4 sq feet in the cop/run and they free range in the back yard which is probably about a tenth of an acre. Plenty of space for the chicks to be full grown let alone 6 weeks old.
About a week ago I saw one of my faverolles (Champagne) had been pecked until she was bleeding on her neck. I admit she was chest bumping and flapping a lot, I know this is behavior to establish the pecking order- I let it go until blood is drawn. I pulled her out for about two days and put her into 'solitary' - And when I say solitary she was in a large carrier with her own alfalfa, water bowl, chick feed, roost, love and attention several times a day. Her neck healed up and I reintegrated her back in around bed time. I also added some extra buckets for them to play/hide in. They love buckets for some reason....
Champagne has been doing great and is actually even more friendly and has stopped chest bumping and causing chaos like she previously was.
The next morning I went into the coop and I noticed one of my Orpingtons (Tonto) was plucking feathers off of 3 of my Welsummers backs! The one Welsummer has hardly any feathers above her tail and was bleeding a little bit but no where near as bad as Champagne. I watched for a few minutes and Tonto was pulling feathers off of everyone except the other Orpingtons. She was even going after feathers on the Welsummer roo! But, didn't pull any of his out, just pecked at them. Tonto has been in 'solitary' for about 36 hours at this point because when I tried putting her back in last night (like I did with Champagne), thinking she got dropped a few spaces on the pecking order, she was right back to plucking feathers out within 5 minutes!
Tonto was hanging around the yard with me last night when everyone else was in the coop and she LOVES people, She will follow me and run into my hands for me to pick her up and hold her. All of these chickens were sent at the same time and have been raised together by me. I am having a hard time breaking her of this habit and I want her to get along with the other hens but I am quickly running out of ideas. It's almost like she likes people better than chickens!
Any help or experience is very much appreciated!
