Chickens are pecking what do I do???

newchick30

Hatching
5 Years
Apr 22, 2014
1
0
7
So I am new to the chicken experience.... we have 32 Rhode Island Reds and they are about 9 weeks old. We just moved them to their new outdoor coop and it is 8 foot by 16 foot and their yard is 3 times as large. They were moved about 3 days ago and since then have started pecking at each other. I have already switched their feed to a 18% protein crumble (which I did about 2 weeks ago) All of the chicks that are being pecked are still missing a few of their back feathers, I didn't want to move them until they all had their feathers but the needed more space. However, they weren't pecking each other before we moved them. Other than adding some items for play is there anything else I can do?
 
This is nothing to worry, this is something called the pecking order, they commonly work it out around any time from hatch to 3 or 4 months this is were they establish who is the top dog of the pack, who gets the most feed, and who u are not to mess with ahahah every flock of chickens have a pecking order :)
 
Randerson846 is correct. But moving chickens disturbs their pecking order and then they have to hash it out again. An 8X16 coop is only a mere 128 square feet or 4 square feet per bird. Your fowl are still relatively tiny, as they get older your coop will get smaller. The run is useless unless your hens can access it 24-7. In a much larger commercial flock the upper beak tips are snipped off to render the bark of the hens worse than their bite. Besides, RLR are seldom kept in commercial sized flocks anymore. Some roosts or perches at various heights in the run area may give the lower ranking birds somewhere to flee to and hide. Let us know how it goes.
 

New posts New threads Active threads

Back
Top Bottom