Cannibalism with Chickens?

[cruelas01]

One of my hens was acting strange and had a bloody sore on her back. I checked a couple times yesterday to see what was going on and I caught another hen eating the flesh off her wound. It appears that some hens are pecking others to the point that they are eating living flesh. Is this common? What can be done to prevent it? Do I have too many hens?

I isolated the injured hen to see if she recovers before returning her. But several other hens are missing feathers above their tails. I thought this was caused by the roosters (I let the hens out of their house a couple hours per day and there are wild roosters that come to my property every day that take care of the hens and escort them around. But now I wonder if the damage is being caused by other hens.

My coop is about 12' x 12' and has 12 nesting boxes and I have 12 hens. Most of the time they are confined to the coop (I have had trouble with dogs killing hens on my property so I don't let them come in and out all the time). There are wild hens and roosters all over our neighbor hood and they gather at my place for free food (I would like to eradicate them but not sure how right now.

After chatting with another chicken person I decided to let my hens out of the coop a few hours a day when I am home so I can watch for the neighbors dogs. They like the extra bugs and time out, but return to the coop in the evening.

I am wondering if they are pecking each other because the coop is too small for 12? Or do I need to figure out who the pecker is and eliminate them? The one I caught pecking this hen lays the best eggs of the bunch, so I hate to get rid of her. She lays very large bright sky blue eggs.

Any suggestions?

Candy

 

[mypicklebird]

Cannibalism is usually due to one or more of the following- overcrowding, boredom, malnutrition. So if you have this going on- look at increasing space or decreasing numbers, giving them interesting things to do while cooped up, and make sure they are getting adequate nutrition (what do you feed them?). 12x12' is not bad, but bigger is always better if the animal(s) are confined to the area for an extended period of time. 12 boxes is way more than you need for 12 hens- you only need 3 or 4 for that many birds. I would focus on what you are feeding them and giving them things to do besides pick on each other. I would also remove the bully for the time being- and see if that stops the problem. If it does- you may have to decide whether you value the blue eggs over the rest of the flock getting injured. Once a bird gets the bad habit, it can be hard to break...

 

[cruelas01]

I originally posted to a wrong thread, but received some good advise from another user. I wanted to include it here in case others with this issue checks this thread out:

Candy, You should post this as a separate post in the chicken disease section, I think you'd get a lot of help! I do think your coop is Plenty big. You have 144 square feet. At 4 square feet per hen you could fit many more in there.

Probably the bare spots are caused by the rooster and for some reason that particular hen got a sore. Once the other chickens see it they will peck it (her) to death. (maybe literally

It's not the fault really of the worst pecker, it's just what chickens do when there is a wound. You should separate the hurt hen and put bluekot on the sore. Hens will peck at red things, the bluekot will disguise the sore and will help it heal but I wouldn't put her back in right away. I would wait until it was getting a lot better. If you have a chicken saddle around you could put one of those on her??

Good luck with her. You could also put antibiotic ointment on there (neosporin) if she is not going to be with the other hens.