Are they attacking the youngsters?

[moms Tree]

I've got five 15 week old hens (4 easter eggers, and a buff orpington) and one 15 week old easter egger rooster. They've been living in the 4 ft wide, 5 ft high, 8 ft long coop since they were 6 weeks old. Two weeks ago, I put five more easter egger hens that are 6 weeks old in a wire cage and put it in the coop, so all the chickens could do the see but don't touch thing to become introduce. Today, I let the youngsters out of their wire cage. A few hours later, I put them back in their wire cage, because the older chickens (especially the rooster) were pecking at them so badly, I became worried about their safety. Am I just being an over worried mommy? Is this just "figuring out pecking order"? Or, are the bigger chickens trying to kill them? There's quite a size difference, and I'm wondering if the youngsters are just too small to defend themselves yet. The coop ought to be large enough for all of them, plenty of roosting space, etc.

 

[enola]

Way too many chickens for that size coop.......

Way too much difference in ages and sizes of the chickens....

 

[moms Tree]

That's 32 square feet of floor space... that's not enough room for 11 chickens??? They free range all day, and only go in there to sleep.

 

[enola]

OMG! I can't even add tonight But the space is still small for adding younger chicks with that much difference in size and age ......... sorry about above goof

 

[moms Tree]

So, you think the problem would get better if I waited until they were older?

 

[chickenboy190]

My 3 year old chickens were really beating up on my 25-30 week olds and they were beating up on my 20 week olds.So they were in a run so they were really beating each other so I had to separate them but I also free range them but I hadn't done that for a while so I let them free range they mainly stayed in their age category but finally they started to mix in as a whole flock they would still peck at each other but not as much but much.I think that maybe you should keep them separated till the younger ones get older then kinda mix them in .

 

[donrae]

Too big an age difference. I've had 8-10 week old chicks killed by adult birds when I tried to introduce. They need to be approximately the same size, they littles should be around 4 months.