Can Chicken Keeping Really Be Easy?

[rosemarythyme]

We have a variety of breeds—an Australorp, Orpington, Wyandottes, and Brahmas. We hang a head of cabbage for them to pick at, as well as give them flock block and several roosting bars. I can get pictures of our setup later today.

IMO food/treats aren't great enrichment items. For short term use yes a flock block or extra treats are great to draw their attention temporarily but it can dilute down the protein in their diet which may be a contributor to picking.

Food also isn't something they can really interact with other than eating. Can't climb on it, hide behind it, sit on it. Do they use the roosting bars you have set up? Do they have a dust bath available? If you have garden trimmings, pulled weeds or dried leaves, have you tried piling those up in the run? Chickens love digging.

 

[Shadrach]

We have a variety of breeds—an Australorp, Orpington, Wyandottes, and Brahmas. We hang a head of cabbage for them to pick at, as well as give them flock block and several roosting bars. I can get pictures of our setup later today. Unfortunately, we live in the city and cannot have a rooster.
I never thought it would be easy, I’ve had other animals before and know that’s never the case. I didn’t think that there would be so many issues based on hearing our neighbors experiences with their flocks, as their chickens all got along well. We kept having injuries to the point of drawing blood from them picking at each others feathers and having to do first aid, then reintroducing them back to the flock, then someone started picking at another chicken. These issues are constant and have been going on for several months. I’m not sure what I’m doing wrong, because I love these chickens and I’m trying to do my best. We have tried Pinless Peepers for two rounds, taking bully chickens out of the flock, and everything else I can think of, and the feather picking still persists.

If you post some pictures of the coop, run ane write a little about how you keep them, maybe someone could give some suggestions on how to deal with the problem.

 

[McChooky]

We have a variety of breeds—an Australorp, Orpington, Wyandottes, and Brahmas. We hang a head of cabbage for them to pick at, as well as give them flock block and several roosting bars. I can get pictures of our setup later today. Unfortunately, we live in the city and cannot have a rooster.
I never thought it would be easy, I’ve had other animals before and know that’s never the case. I didn’t think that there would be so many issues based on hearing our neighbors experiences with their flocks, as their chickens all got along well. We kept having injuries to the point of drawing blood from them picking at each others feathers and having to do first aid, then reintroducing them back to the flock, then someone started picking at another chicken. These issues are constant and have been going on for several months. I’m not sure what I’m doing wrong, because I love these chickens and I’m trying to do my best. We have tried Pinless Peepers for two rounds, taking bully chickens out of the flock, and everything else I can think of, and the feather picking still persists.

I added wide poop boards a couple feet off the floor (under the roosting bars) and its the favorite spot for my shy hens

 

[Altairsky]

If you start with an all new flock and you're afraid of troublemakers, chose a single breed flock. Calm breeds are for example cochin, brahma, faverolle.
Don't buy production breeds, they tend to be more nervous and they tend to have more health issues than heritage/show breeds.

If you feed layer feed, it generally has a poor amount of protein. Low protein can stimulate pecking. Chickens are not vegan. You can add meat/fish to their diet to increase protein level or switch to an all flock with animal protein as ingredient.

 

[igorsMistress]

We do not have any roosters and we provide enrichment, an 80 square feet run for 5 chickens, and they are all healthy. We have had relentless feather picking issues due to a separation when they were chicks. I just want to know if I get an all new flock of chickens some day, would those chickens get along with each other happily if I did everything ‘right’?

First, you likely haven’t done anything wrong. Second, there are no guarantees regardless of your experience level. Third, there is a learning curve so don’t beat yourself up over anything.

Every chicken has a different personality. Just like people, personalities clash and when you’ve got them locked up where they can’t ever escape, you have problems like people in prison. It’s just the way it goes.

If you will be more specific about the issues then perhaps we can help you resolve them.

Feather picking is not necessarily a personality clash, there can be other causes.

 

[saysfaa]

... Is there such thing as a flock that just gets along?

Yes.

Am I guaranteed to have troubles?

I don't think so but you may have to make some changes.

I would love to hear your experiences and thoughts before I might consider another flock.

In all areas of life, I find it works better to stack the deck in my favor as much as I can rather than try to fix problems. Call it "stay ahead of the wave" or "build in wide margins" or...

One aspect of stacking the deck in favor of success is to provide enough space. The rule of thumb is to have a minimum of 4 sq ft of open floor space per chicken in the coop and 10 sq ft per chicken in the run. "Open" meaning not counting the space taken by nests, feeders, waterers, roosts that are lower than the birds are happy to walk under, anything else that takes up floor space. That is the bare minimum that has a reasonable chance of allowing most people to not see problems with their flock.

The shape of the space and the scale of the space matters. A narrow space or a space with choke points like doors has a higher minimum because one bird can block the others easily. A small flock needs a larger space as a minimum than a very large flock because they don't stay spaced evenly across the space. So, in a large flock, any given hen can show respect to any other given bird by getting far enough away or going behind others.

Another aspect is the characteristics of the chickens kept. Flighty birds tend to need more space than docile birds. Mixing types of birds, like flighty with docile or polish with clean feathered birds or easy-going types with less easy-going types tends to need more space as a minimum than birds that are all of a kind.

I started by keeping five, three black australorps and two brown leghorns, in a combined coop/run that had 8x10 feet of clear floor space. One of the leghorns behaved more typically for a leghorn than the other and was not a good fit for such a small space. I gave her to friends who free ranged nearly all the time. My others did much better after that. A year later, I lost one of the australorps to a reproductive problem. That was a harder loss for the others but after they adjusted, I could see that the three fit the space much better than the four did.

Other aspects have similar "bare minimum" vs "with margin" ranges.

It isn't that one necessarily has to have more space, or similar birds, and any of the other aspects. But if you don't then it takes more management, and/or luck, to not have problems.

I like you were unlucky to get one chick that discovered feather picking and the others learned it from her. I don't know how to fix that so that keeping any of this flock will be easy to keep. Your space is minimal, probably the other aspects have more margin.

I think if you started over with three or four birds of one breed or of very similar breeds or started over with five or more of one breed or very similar breeds in a bigger space or started over with breeds that were not similar in a much bigger space that you are much, much, much more likely to find chickens are easy to keep.

 

[EmmaDonovan]

I only once had a flock without roo. never again. hens behaved like teenage girls out of control.

That's a good way of putting it. That has been my observation and experience as well. A good roo manages the hens' personalities. He breaks up fights and keeps wannabe bullies in line.

Without a roo, one or more of the hens often battle to assume leadership which they just don't do as well and it causes more problems.

 

[No Coop No Problem]

Proximity breeds contempt. Boredom causes problems. An 80sq feet run is a small, boring prison. Of course most chickens will fight each other in there, just like human prisoners fight each other

Chicken keeping is easy with the proper set-up, just as working on a car is easy with the proper tools

People lock animals into areas for the animals entire lives that they themselves couldn't tolerate for 30 minutes, and then they wonder where behavioral issues come from

 

[Yardmom]

It seems that your concerns are related to feather picking and how the flock relates to each other. First relax. It is not your job to make sure all your chickens get along with each other. Learning to live with each other is something chickens have to work out on their own. Every time a bird is pulled out or put in that process of how to live with each other starts again.

Some things you can do to make it easier for them to live together peacefully.

Make sure birds can respond properly to birds that are "above" them.

Many have mentioned space, but a bird being told to "back off" by another doesn't just need to be able to move away. They need to be able to make a proper submission. That can be difficult in an enclosed run. To help this make sure birds can get out of sight of each other. The roosts help. The birds also need things to hide behind. Have multiple feeders where the birds can't see from one to the other can also help.

Make sure they are getting the nutrients they need.

Unfortunately adding treats can lower the amount of protein they are consuming, and eating feathers adds protein.

Hopefully your chicken raising can become less stressful for you.

 

[Lavender and CJ]

To explain the ‘separation as chicks’ that I mentioned in my original post (which is where I believe the problem started):

We had 2 Gold Laced Wyandotte chicks that were 3 weeks older than the 6 chicks we added. Because they were so much bigger and brooder space was limited, we moved the 2 GLWs into another brooder box adjacent to the first one. They remained separated until our coop was completed. In the meantime, our 2 Light Brahmas feet feathered out. When we carefully introduced them all into the new coop, the GLWs had never seen feathered feet. They began plucking them, which caused bleeding, which led to the Brahmas being separated out to heal. Without feet feathers to pick, the GLWs moved on to feather picking the parson’s nose area, and before long, all the others had learned it. We gave up and rehomed the GLWs, then put pinless peepers on everyone else. 2 rounds with those. When they came off, our 2 Brahmas and 1 SLW were able to settle in and be content together. The other SLW, our Australorp, and our Lavender Orpington went right back to picking parson’s nose feathers. So those 3 have been pulled out, meaning we have 3 to keep and 3 to rehome. I’m just so sad. All 6 are affectionate with me, but can’t get along with each other.