chickens fighting

[elladaisy27]

Hi my name is Rachel and i am new to this sight, i wondered if anyone could shed any light on why my chickens which have lived together about 8 months have started fighting this morning, really bad fighting there is blood, i have had to seperate them, any ideas?

 

[CheerioLounge]

First,

from Twentynine Palms in the California high desert!

How many chickens do you have and how old are they? They could just be working out the pecking order.

 

[theoldchick]

What kind of chickens do you have?

 

[ghillie]

 

[aoxa]

From Eastern Canada

 

[Ridgerunner]

Welcome to the forum!

Glad you joined us!

I'm afraid we need a bit more information. How many do you have? How big is your coop? Have you experienced something that caused them to be kept inside in a small space, like maybe a snowstorm, that is different than normal? Has anything else significantly changed about how you keep them?

Are they roosters? They may have reached a point in their maturity where they were settling flock dominance.

Are you sure it was them fighting? Maybe a rat or something else did some damage at night?

There are different things that can cause them to fight. If they are 8 months old, pecking order or flock dominance issues are at the top of my list as possible causes. But they can also fight if they are housed really closely together, mainly out of boredom or to protect their personal space. And the loser does not have enough room to run away and let the other know he/she has won.

 

[elladaisy27]

i have 9 chickens, in a chicken house big enough for 30 they have lots of room inside and out, they are all about 18months old and been together at least 9 months, no change in the weather although the weather is wet and rubbish, my hubby has built them a playground lol with hay bales and hanging toys so dont think its that either, many thanks for your replies

 

[elladaisy27]

forgot to put i have no cocks, and i saw them fighting it was awful they were both very tired outside covered in mud and blood i had to seperate them

 

[Ridgerunner]

You have pretty well wiped out all my possible reasons. Age, space, and predators are not issues. Often a flock of hens with no rooster will have one hen take the dominant position and assume certain rooster duties, not just safety issues but going so far as to mount other hens to establish and maintain her dominance. It's possible it was a dominance or pecking order fight, but that kind of stuff should have been settled long ago. Occasionally there are refresher courses, but those usually turn to chasing and running away pretty quickly at that age.

I'm sorry. I just don't have a clue.