jschmi
In the Brooder
I have 6 chickens, 3 Rhode Island Reds and 3 Golden Lace Wyandottes,
I raised them from chicks together and they are now about 6 months old and one of the Rhode Island Reds’ is starting to pluck the feathers off of all three of the Golden Laced’s backs near their tails.
I just started noticing the bare spots on them like maybe 3 days ago and today I noticed it was getting worse and one had a very bloody spot where the chicken has been pecking at her.
The chicken who is doing the pecking is the one who I believe it at the top of the pecking order. She is generally not nice to people much either, she bites pretty hard. I am wondering if she just had a mean personality.
I did notice of the other Rhode Island Reds’ was also pecking at the Golden Laced once but it wasn’t near as often. I only saw her do it once.
I do not free range them because I am worried my neighbor’s farm dog will attack them as it sometimes wanders over to our yard. They do have a run that is big enough for all of them.
One thing that I have changed over the past few weeks was I switched their waterer to one of the nipple waters.
I was reading online that chickens will start to peck each other if they feel they don’t have proper access to food and water, so I moved their feeder outside so they have more room to move around it.
I left their waterer inside because it has a heater on it because of the cold weather and it says to keep it protected, but today when I noticed that there were so many more feathers missing and one was bleeding, I added their older waterer back and placed it outside. I am hoping that helps.
I am worried that it’s too late because the one drew blood and she will continue to be aggressive and the other will follow.
Not sure what to do. I have read to separate the one that is pecking the others, but that would mean I would have to get an additional coop and run.
Anyone have any experience with this type of situation? If so what did you do?
Thanks you
I raised them from chicks together and they are now about 6 months old and one of the Rhode Island Reds’ is starting to pluck the feathers off of all three of the Golden Laced’s backs near their tails.
I just started noticing the bare spots on them like maybe 3 days ago and today I noticed it was getting worse and one had a very bloody spot where the chicken has been pecking at her.
The chicken who is doing the pecking is the one who I believe it at the top of the pecking order. She is generally not nice to people much either, she bites pretty hard. I am wondering if she just had a mean personality.
I did notice of the other Rhode Island Reds’ was also pecking at the Golden Laced once but it wasn’t near as often. I only saw her do it once.
I do not free range them because I am worried my neighbor’s farm dog will attack them as it sometimes wanders over to our yard. They do have a run that is big enough for all of them.
One thing that I have changed over the past few weeks was I switched their waterer to one of the nipple waters.
I was reading online that chickens will start to peck each other if they feel they don’t have proper access to food and water, so I moved their feeder outside so they have more room to move around it.
I left their waterer inside because it has a heater on it because of the cold weather and it says to keep it protected, but today when I noticed that there were so many more feathers missing and one was bleeding, I added their older waterer back and placed it outside. I am hoping that helps.
I am worried that it’s too late because the one drew blood and she will continue to be aggressive and the other will follow.
Not sure what to do. I have read to separate the one that is pecking the others, but that would mean I would have to get an additional coop and run.
Anyone have any experience with this type of situation? If so what did you do?
Thanks you