Chickens not get along.......

[NewFeathersInCo]

Worried and stressed. Hello from Northern Colorado. I have 10 chickens in a coop that is 6 by 8 with a run of 20 by 20. Could my chickens be getting bored?
I have 3 barred rocks, 2 lavender orpingtons, 2 golden laced Wyandottes, and 3 buff Brahma bantams that are all around 2-4 years old. I had the 3 barred rocks one year before all the others joined the family.
I had a little bit of difficulty in the beginning for them to decide the pecking order. Every now and then I do have a problem still with one of the Barred Rock originals. And yesterday while feeding them I noticed that one of my lavender orpingtons couldn't stand and her entire chest, on the back of her head, and in the middle of her back was severely pecked upon with sores on it. I gave her a handful of scratch right in front of her in which he gobbled it up, so I know that she does not have a lack of appetite. One of the barred rocks came swooping over jumped on her back and started picking at her again, so I know who the culprit is. So yesterday I put the lavender orpington in her own little pen with food and water for her to heal, and I plan on separating my naughty little hen, but I don't want know what to do next. With further investigation other chickens also looks like they have been pecked on. Do I keep this naughty little hen? How do I treat the wounds on my lavender? She is also only able to put pressure on one of her legs so I think she either hurt it by jumping down from her roosting bars or hurt it in the middle of fighting off this Barred Rock. I will look closer at it today.

 

[NewFeathersInCo]

I should also mention that my barred rocks are bantams.

 

[chickens really]

As Chickens age behavioural problems can arise and no amount of supplements can change the behavour..Back before Chickens were pets, they would be Culled and young Birds brought in...
Best of luck....

 

[Ridgerunner]

A lot of people have the impression that size is important in this kind f stuff. As you can see, obviously it's not very important.

I'm not sure what is going on. Did you just have a snow where the chickens were stuck in the coop and couldn't get out in the run? Or did this happen before you opened the pop door so they were trapped in the coop alone? As long as the run is available you should have plenty of room. That coop size by itself isn't bad for 10 hens but a lot depends on personalities of the individuals. A little information on when it happened and those conditions might help.

By this age the age difference isn't important. You say you have problems with one hen off and on anyway, this type of stuff isn't new. Personally I do not allow any one chicken, male or female, to regularly disrupt the peace and tranquility of my flock. Since I eat mine it's easy for me, that 4 year old bantam would make fabulous chicken broth, but that may not be a solution for you. Getting rid of her otherwise could be a challenge for you.

One thing you can try is to isolate that one trouble-maker for a full week. Keep her where she cannot see the others. When you put her back with the others that may have changed her position in the pecking order enough that she undergoes behavior modification. I've had this work with a 2-week-old chick that was killing its siblings, though that was just a one day separation. Others on here have said it worked for them, though for others it did not.

I've had one chicken take a strong dislike to one specific chicken, to the point that if killed that chicken. But it got along great with all the others, so it was not a flockwide problem. With others being pecked it does not sound like this is the issue.

It's possible that Orp injured herself somehow. If a chicken is injured or weak, sometimes other chickens will attack them, trying to drive a weak chicken out of the flock. It's an instinctive reaction for some chickens, though often it's just one chicken doing it. That's to run off a diseased chicken before it infects the entire flock or to keep an injured chicken for telling a predator where the flock lives. It's also possible that Orp was injured during a fight, I had one dislocate a leg once that way. Once a chicken is injured there is no mercy shown.

Another option is to build another coop and run and maintain two separate flocks. Or if they were trapped in the coop and could not get to the run because of weather would be to provide weather protection to the run so snow doesn't blow in and a cold wind doesn't keep them locked in the coop.

But I think the real problem is the personality of that Barred Rock bantam. Something triggered that attack and as long as she is around something could trigger another attack even though you are long past the integration phase.