Lots of good advice here. So many things to check. Don't let it discourage you. It's a process of elimination. Each time you find something that it ISN'T its a great feeling! When you find the thing that it IS you feel empowered because now you can beat it. You got good advice on many topics so I'll just stick with the topic of space. When everything else is eliminated consider this.
Your set up is a bit crowded. Its a good size for 6 birds max. It would be better for 1 or 2 less. This could be a factor. Birds will pluck out each others feathers and sometime bully the bottom pecking order birds when they are stressed from overcrowding. While there's always the option of reducing your flock size I'm going to assume that you, like me when I found myself in that predicament, don't want to get rid of any of them. The other answer is give them more space. Inside the coop, not including the nest area, should be 4sqft per bird at the very minimum but more is better. So 7 birds minimally need 28sqft. Possibly increasing from 4x6 to 4x7 or even 4x8 would be perfect. The run need 10sqft per bird so that would be 70sqft . Increasing the length by 1 or, better yet, 2 feet would make a world of difference.
Keep in mind about chicken math! Best thing is go 3X bigger than you need to. I started with 4. Now I have 9 and planning more. It's an ADDiction!
Your set up is a bit crowded. Its a good size for 6 birds max. It would be better for 1 or 2 less. This could be a factor. Birds will pluck out each others feathers and sometime bully the bottom pecking order birds when they are stressed from overcrowding. While there's always the option of reducing your flock size I'm going to assume that you, like me when I found myself in that predicament, don't want to get rid of any of them. The other answer is give them more space. Inside the coop, not including the nest area, should be 4sqft per bird at the very minimum but more is better. So 7 birds minimally need 28sqft. Possibly increasing from 4x6 to 4x7 or even 4x8 would be perfect. The run need 10sqft per bird so that would be 70sqft . Increasing the length by 1 or, better yet, 2 feet would make a world of difference.
Keep in mind about chicken math! Best thing is go 3X bigger than you need to. I started with 4. Now I have 9 and planning more. It's an ADDiction!
