Chickens pecking at eachother + other issues??? Help!

[maggienchamp]

Hi everyone My flock consists of 7 chickens, all hens - 2 Buff Orpies, 2 RIR's, 2 OEG/Golden Seabright bantams, and 1 Barred Rock. Currently, I have one of my Buff Orpies, Phoebe, seperated in a small coop that we built her, as she had severe injuries from being pecked at by the others. She is recovering fairly well, but now there is another problem...the same thing is happening again with the other 6 girls.
I've noticed that one of my RIR's, Penny, has the same signs that Phoebe had when she was being pecked at. At the base of her tail, the quills of her feathers are showing, also, her bottom is missing a lot of feathers. Actually, on almost all of my girls, besides the 2 bantams, Piper & Chloe and the other RIR Mable, their are red, featherless, and irritated.
Also, I have seen my other Buff Orpie, Emmy, darting around the run, which Phoebe did when she was being pecked at, though she hasn't shown any other signs - like the quills showing.
When I asked one of my friends who has owned chickens in the past for some ideas as to what could be going on, she gave me a couple of possibilities - the first being that my girls have lice, which would explain the red, featherless bottoms. She also said that the size of my coop could be part of the problem. I agree with her that it is too small, and at the begining of the summer we had already made plans to build a bigger coop for them.
So, what do yous guys think could be going on? I was planning on hatching a couple baby chicks this summer to add to my flock, but I decided against it as I feel that introducing new chickens would only make matters worse. I have included pictures of my coop, Penny's tail, and an example of the bare, red bottom (my Barred Rock, Lacy).

Thank you for any advice or suggestions! It's greatly appreciated

 

[donrae]

I'm thinking overcrowding. How large is the area they are in? It looks quite small in the pic. Overcrowding is quite stressful on birds and they will literally cannibalize each other due to the stress.

 

[Txwingnut]

I was thinking the same thing as donrae. seems kinda small for that many birds but is very nice!

 

[azygous]

I agree they need more space. You could easily build a couple wings off each side of the existing run, and open door-ways into them from the main run. I've done this as I added to my flock, and they really enjoy the complexity.

I've been dealing with a feather-picking problem, too, and I think I have it licked by introducing a very simple but engaging toy into their run every day. I take a Gator Aid bottle and drill quarter-inch holes in it and then fill it with hen scratch and BOSS, put the lid back on and toss it to them. They work the bottle all day long, pecking, scratching at it until the seeds leak out very slowly. They've quit digging deep holes all over the run, too.

They're so busy playing with the bottle they don't seem to have the inclination to pick on one another.

Here's the link to details on the bottle toy. https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/688785/great-new-chicken-toy/

 

[maggienchamp]

Thanks for the feedback everyone! I will be building a new coop and large sized run ASAP!!!
Donrae - the run is approximatley 8 x 3, I know it's small! Originally I hadn't planned on it being that tiny, I wanted it to be at least an 8 x 10, but the builder (aka, my dad) built the run when I wasn't home, so I couldn't tell him how big I wanted it.

Azygous - The Gatorade bottle is a great idea! I will definatley try this; hopefully this will hold my girls over until I can build their new coop Thanks!