Chicken Armagedon

[pnwnative]

We have been keeping hens now for nearly two years. Starting to wonder if it has been worth the effort.

Last night I had to clean up half my flock *again*. Twice we have had the birds from separate aged flocks literally destroy each other. I'm at a loss as to why this has happened a second time. One group of four nearly year olds and eight 12-14 week old reds had been roosting in separate spaces (tractor for the 'adults' and shed for the younger hens) but had been free ranging for several days with no aggression observed. In fact they were entering each others roosts and eating without any problems seen when we were present. Then sometime late afternoon yesterday two adults and four "teens" died, with a seventh bird unaccounted for and presumed dead. No evidence of other animals doing the deed, one surviving hen had most of it's feathers plucked from it's backside with several bloody marks on it's back. I watched a surviving red chase one of the adults last night while I was cleaning up.. she had it's feathers in her mouth as she ran after it.

I was sick to my stomach when i went outside last night.. had another similar instance before with the flock of adult birds when they were about the same age as my younglings. They managed to get out of tractor one day while previous adult flock was grazing.. and four of them were killed by the adults. Why?

We have heard of others that mix breeds / ages with hardly any thought. One recent acquaintance suggested we could simply put them in together at night to roost and all would be well.. they had done so successfully. But they have a rooster, which I tend to think would change the rules a little.

So here I am asking for some good advice - and to decide if I have a chance at keeping the remaining 6 together without killing each other. I am not wanting to start over with a new group, not unless I get rid of all my current flock - and I'm starting to think if I did that I wouldn't start over again - at least not with chicks. Has anyone had similar problems in past?

PWNN - Living in the Midwest

 

[dainerra]

dog.

 

[DeannaOR]

I'm not convinced they did each other in either. I would think predator.

 

[caj1985]

Do you have production reds? My neighbor has 4-H production reds and when I gave me a couple of roosters from my flock that were a different color - BR and EE the production reds ganged up on them and nearly kill them. He has tried on several occasions to introduce different colored birds and the production reds will NOT accept them.

I have had minor pecking, etc from my mixed flock especially from my Jersey Giant but nothing close to lethal. It might be your breeds.

 

[pnwnative]

Yes I suspect breed types have something to do with this as we've never kept a single breed in any of the groups.

I've been trying to second guess if it was a predator or not. Some things that made me discount that as the cause were the location of the birds when I found them... one was in the coop, one was under the deck of my wood pile where nothing but a very small dog would have reached - neighbor does have a lab but we've never seemed to have any issues with it being outdoors when chickens were out.

The telling part for me was that my reds had been obviously pecked.. missing feathers on their backs and one that was hurt a little more significantly had several bloody marks on back that weren't bites. Seeing the red chasing the adult around the yard later seemed to prove that there was some aggression.

It's interesting that the reds have seemed to be the least shy around us when we've raised them - but both the current crew and our last bunch included reds, and they appeared to be the ones responsible before.

 

[dreamcatcherarabians]

I'd either get rid of the reds and try a more docile breed or eliminate everything BUT the reds and just run them until they age out.

 

[bj taylor]

if you're sure no predator is involved, i would agree w/dreamcatcherarabian. if production red is your breed, just keep them at all the same age & time of entry to coop. otherwise, i would look at more docile breeds.
i've had to integrate two groups. four older ones originally and five younger. mixed breeds. it took about a month. they're not all best friends, but there is only shows of dominance, no attempt to destroy.
i do have two production reds, but they are in the younger group, so they do not see themselves as dominant.
good luck

 

[centrarchid]

I keep birds in flocks, sometimes as described by OP. Many of mine are gamefowl that will when improperly managed cause death upon each other. Taking this into account, I can not relate to OP's observation that losses where caused by chicken on chicken violence as such described is outside my experience which is substantial. Predator like dog already mentioned seems more plausible. Also consider juvenile fox(s) doing deed and not having time to collect catch for cacheing elsewhere.

 

[pnwnative]

Thankfully I found the missing girl hiding under a pine tree last night. She has a limp, but appears to be ok otherwise. Hopefully she will get well soon. So now I have a motley crew of birds..

Still can't figure out what happened. While I tend to think a predator might have been involved it seems highly unlikely to me at least that there would have been both an external threat and chicken rage. It's pretty obvious that the reds were friendly fire fodder.. four of them have significant feather loss on their backsides.. consistent with what I've seen before when they have been pecking on the lowly bird in the flock.

Guess as a coworker suggested I need to invest in an outdoor webcam..