Chicken Jail or what? Need help

77573

Hatching
Sep 16, 2022
5
3
9
We have 6 chickens (approx 9 months old and together since chicks). A silver laced Wyandotte (leader), speckled Sussex, polish, legbar, Easter Egger and Cochin.
The Easter egger was sick, we gave her medicine and she was almost at full strength when the legbar attacked her, we think to move up in the pecking order. Before we could get her to safety the Wyandotte attacked her too. The Easter egger had some bleeding and eye was closed. The Easter Egger is on the mend and we put her together with our Cochin who is a sweetie and wouldn’t attack her. We want to introduce the Easter egger back and we’re told to put the legbar in jail “cage” to knock her down a peg on the pecking order. Is there anything else we can do?
 
Can you post pictures of your entire setup?
There is more to it than just putting them back in or isolating the original attacker.
What was wrong with the EE? Sometimes if there is something very wrong with them, the others will attack them to keep her away from the flock.

Oh, and welcome to BYC!
 
The Easter Egger had a bacterial infection and we treated it with penicillin and ivermectin. She was at least 95% back to normal if not 100%. I will post a photo later but they have a 6ft x 8ft run with a 4ft x 4ft coop and they are let out daily for 3 to 4 hours. They also have an extremely good diet! My wife feeds them better than me!
 
Your coop is small for 6 chickens. It is recommended that each bird have a minimum of 4sqft of coop space (that would be 24sqft and your sitting at 16) Your run is also on the small size for 6 birds, 10 sqft per bird is the recommended minimum (whick is 60sqft and you're sitting at 48) This may be a bit of an overcrowding issue. Would definitely apprectiate pics of you setup
 
Last edited:
I agree with @Auntiejessi3 that your setup is too small for your flock size. And because the run is that small you don't have enough room in there to have the structure that the flock likes to have in order to feel more secure. They need things to hide behind, perch up on and dig through. You would be well advised to double the size of that run.
Is your wife feeding them a complete balanced diet? Oftentimes people think that feeding the birds kitchen scraps of all varieties is very healthy. It can be but more often than not it causes nutritional deficiencies, usually in the protein content.
 
Last edited:
I agree with the others - the coop is too small, and the run is way too small. It doesn't matter how long they spend out free ranging - the moment they go back inside and feel crammed, tensions can spike and you can end up with more attacks.

Also agree on the feed comments. What seems like tasty good food to humans isn't necessarily healthy for the chickens. So your wife feeding them better than you may not actually be a good thing. Birds are very sensitive to nutritional deficiencies, and can have seemingly unexplainable problems that trace back to that.
 
Welcome to BYC. Where, in general, are you? Climate matters, especially when it comes to housing.

Photos of your setup would help us to help you. :)

I will post a photo later but they have a 6ft x 8ft run with a 4ft x 4ft coop and they are let out daily for 3 to 4 hours.

This is far too small and a few hours of free-range doesn't compensate for spending most of their time crowded. :(

The Usual Guidelines

For each adult, standard-sized hen you need:
  • 4 square feet in the coop (.37 square meters)
  • 10 square feet in the run (.93 square meters),
  • 1 linear foot of roost (.3 meters),
  • 1/4 of a nest box,
  • And 1 square foot (.09 square meters) of permanent, 24/7/365 ventilation, preferably located over the birds' heads when they're sitting on the roost.
6 hens
  • 24 square feet in the coop. 4'x6' is the only really practical build for this given the common dimensions of lumber. If you can't walk into it, put the access door in the middle of the long side to make sure you can reach all areas of the coop because a stubborn chicken WILL press itself into/lay an egg in the back corner where you can't reach.
  • 6 feet of roost
  • 60 square feet in the run. 6'x10' or 8'x8'.
  • 6 square feet of ventilation.
  • 2 nest boxes, to give the hens a choice
You have coop and run space for 4 hens (assuming that 4x4 doesn't include the nests). With one out the others, already crowded, claimed what space they could and don't intend to give it back up. :(

Short-term, can they free-range all day?

Another short-term fix might be pinless peepers on the bully.

Once you post some photos we can help you improve your coop -- this is a common problems and there are a number of fixes possible depending on the exact scenario. :)
 

New posts New threads Active threads

Back
Top Bottom