chicken problems :-(

[jlj1212]

Hello everyone, so we have 11 hens, 4 Rhodes island reds 4 isa browns, 2 buff orpingtons and 1 Americana,
Well our poor americana, Eleanor, has been picked on since her sister passed last spring, its not super terrible I think shes just low woman on the pecking order,
however these past few months Henri, Dorothy, charlotte and Bernie, have been picking on sue,
One of the buffs, like hard core, like chasing her around coop and pining her down, we have only observed them doing this at night, never during day, my boyfriend is ready to cull all 4 of the isas, as one of them is also eating eggs (which I know is a huge problem- ), my issue is what is sue is sick and thats why they're picking on her ? Sue used to be high up on the pecking order and now appears to be very low,
as for the eggs eating problem I want to seperate the isas one at a time and see which one eats her eggs and then that one goes to chicken heaven...
any idea why they would be attacking poor sue?

 

[hannah8]

where are they pecking her at? the comb? back? is there any blood? you could try putting a small hole in egg, draining yolk and egg white out, then filling with mustard that will teach her a lesson and hopefully she wont eat any other eggs, also putting golf balls in the nest box could help, she may be eating them becauses she is not getting enough nutrients, if i run out of feed even for a couple hours i will notice an egg has been eating make sure they have food 24/7

 

[jlj1212]

No blood, just pinning her down and chasing her, we've tried the egg with mustard, ours ate it, tried dish soap also they ate that as well, they have food 24/7 so I dont know why shes eating them. (Whomever it is)

 

[hannah8]

what kind of food are you feeding them did
you check for parisites?

 

[jlj1212]

We're feeding them the same feed we have been feeding them since we got them a year and a half ago ( crumble from tractor supply)
PLUS we give them scraps almost everyday ( veggie scraps etc)
Ya, no parasites present, so that's why were confused, poor sue used to be on top of the pecking order and now she's not

 

[hannah8]

if youre giving them too many scraps they wont be getting the ideal nutrition the crumbles provide exactly what they need and the scraps make them have too much of one nutrient which they may be tring to find more nutrients like in eggs that might be why she is eating the eggs , just a thought and now im out of thoughts so hope someone else can help you out!