Bullying older chickens not letting others feed + lots of NOISE!

[mefleming]

I have 2 older chickens (1year) and introduced 2 younger chickens (just starting laying now)about three monts ago, we did all the right things to integrate them and all was going well until.....we got a Grandpa feeder..... the older chickens won't let the younger ones feed and until we reintroduced the trough feeder the younger ones were making the most AWFUL stressed noises. Now the big ones are being even bigger bullies than they were before - chasing, pecking, not letting them feed from either of the two stations. (we also didn't get any eggs from the younger ones today

We have kept the Grandpa feeder open - we want to exclusively use the Grandpa feeder so we can go away and have someone feed them daily - the sparrows are getting all the food. They are almost the same size now. They freerange our 1/4 acre section about half the time, but when we are away we want to keep them in their coop (5mx5m) Can anyone help please ! Will this sort itself out?

 

[Judy]

Separating the bully for about a week is the usual method, but if they are equal bullies, I don't know how much good this will do with only 4 chickens. If you can figure out which is the lead bully, getting him isolated for a week or so might work well; he will be at the bottom of the pecking order when he returns.

 

[aka Rachel]

How long have they been keeping the younger ones from the feeders?

I have also integrated two new hens to my flock (long process) and I notice when I refill the feeders there is a little bit of pecking and such. However since the food is always available there is always opportunity later for them to eat. I've noticed that with other flocks as well, the underdog will get to eat, just not at the same time.

One bit of advice I read was to make sure your feeders are big enough to feed at least one third of your flock at one time to avoid (too many?) problems.