Desperatley Needing Help!!

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Chick423

Chick423

In the Brooder
Feb 14, 2016
23
0
32
Tucson, AZ
Hi Everyone,

Thank you for adding me to the group. I have been following this forum for some months now just for information, but now I need everyone or anyones help, Im at my wits end!

Let me start my story. Im originally from the Bronx NY, and always wished to have a farm! I have finally realized that dream. I am located in Tucson Arizona where I was able to have some acreage. I started my flock with 6, 3 month old girls....2 White Leghorn, 2 RIR, 1 Bantam, and 1 Sussex. Everything was fine for 4 months, they all started laying and were happy free ranging and in the coop at night. Unfortunatley, my 2 RIR girls were killed over a month ago by the local hawk. I was very upset over this and my best friend took it upon herself to purchase and give me 2 new girls. 1 Americauna, which is my fav, and 1 RIR. Gotta love my friend for knowing how upset I was over the loss of my little girls. I read all the info on here about how to introduce the new girls to the home girls.

I did everything that was listed. Quarantined them for 3 weeks, put them in the run along side the coop for a week, then started introducing them at night and removing them in the morning. They were relentless on the new girls. Bullying them non-stop! So I removed the 2 bullies from the coop and kept them separate. I kept the Bantam and the sussex separate for a week, the 2 Leghorns got used to the new girls pretty quickly and left them alone. I re-introduced the bullies in last night and let them free range today. There was some squabbling but nothing horrible, I thought everything was going to be ok. They all went back in the coop, squabbled a little so I let the pecking order happen. I went out and when I came back I noticed my 2W Leghorns were scratching and pecking non stop at the new girls and when I looked closer they had bloodied one of them. Im so upset, nothing seems to be working for me. I tried the treats, the hanging cd, and still the ones I didnt expect are the ones hurting them!

What do I have left now?? Im sorry for the long post but my husband says Im obsessed, I agree!

xoxo
Miriam
 
For your scenario, I suggest you should separate your chickens again, each breed in another pen. You can let them sleep in their pens for about a few days and try your best to separate them for as long as they are in different pens/sleeping places. Let your most bullied one occupy the main pen with your timid ones, then reintroduce the ones that are not as aggressive. Just do it again each day until all of your chickens have been reintroduced. The most timid ones should feel like the flock master since they have been there for longer.

I'm not sure if this will help, but if it did, great! If it didn't, you can do more experiments and study them and see what other things could do better
D.gif
jumpy.gif
 
Hi Miriam and welcome to BYC. You seem to have done all the right things in trying to integrate your new flock members. Unfortunately, once a chicken sees blood, they will peck that chicken relentlessly. I'd suggest that remove the injured hen, clean up her injured areas with either a dilute saline solution and then treat with iodine solution. I would not put her back until her injury has cleared up. I understand that you can also buy products that deter pecking in these circumstances (I live in Kenya, and such things do not exist, so i am not familiar with them).

I'm assuming since you lost two chickens to hawks that you still free range your flock? This is less likely to result in too much pecking. What may help is setting up multiple feed stations out of eyesight of each other in order to reduce dominance over food. If the pecking only occurs in the coop, then it may be that the roost space is insufficient to allow the new girls to get out of the way of the existing flock (I seem to recall a minimum of 2ft per bird is recommended). In the past, i have divided my roost to allow smaller flock members to roost in peace - maybe try this?

Sorry that i can't be of much further help, but you've done all the right things to begin with!


All the best
CT
 
All I can think of is maybe putting "pinless peepers," on your bullies. It prevents birds from seeing straight ahead so it throws their aim off. You can put pinless peepers in the search box and it will come up. Other than that, I would just rehome them all and get new birds - the same age and the breeds from one source . That way they grow up together and do not need to be integrated with older birds, etc.
 
Also, maybe look into pinless peepers for the hyper "peckers"? (Sorry, not sure how else to describe it) this helped me with an over aggressive "pecker" as it distracted her from focusing on the end of her beak. It didnt stop her, just reduced the frenzy down to occasional pecking. I also tried putting the aggressive hen into a hospital pen adjacent to the main pen for a few weeks to allow the new hens to settle in with the others, it worked well for me.
 
Thanks everyone! The pecking does only happen in the coop and the new thing was that it came from the 2 birds that originally didn't care about the integration for 2 weeks! When I put the bullies back in the docile girls turned! I don't want to regime them as I have grown very attached, and plus they are producing for me. I may have to consider building a bigger coop and moving them around to see if that helps. If any of you have any other ideas please keep replying! Thanks again!!
 
I came up with this idea last night and wanted to run it by you all for your thoughts! I have decided to build a new coop, one that is going to be much larger and have different things going on. Do you all think it would work if I built it and the day it's ready put all my girls in one box drive them around for a little bit then put them in the new coop? That way everything is new to them including feeders and waterers
 

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