Dixie Chicks

[BriardChickens]

 

[Outpost JWB]

WARNING!!!! IF YOU ARE EATING OR HAVE A SQUIMISH STOMACH, DO NOT READ THIS POST!!!!

You've been warned. We had a horrible thing happen yesterday and I'd like to know you opinions on correcting the problem. Or eliminating it. DH was mowing the grass & heard a ruckus from the pullet pen. These chickens have been aggressive. In that pen I have 20 pullets and cockrells purchased from feed store and local breeders. There are Cuckoo marans, Easter Eggers, Light Brahmas, Jersey Giants, and a handful of others. I was on my way home from work & little girl was on her way home from school. Anyhow, DH stopped the lawn mower, went over to see what the commotion was and discovered they were all ripping out the insides of an Easter Egger pullet. She was one of the biggest ones and I never seen her act weak, or had to pull her to "heal" from pecking. They had blood everywhere and was running around pulling out her insides while she was alive.

They were all in a frenzy like piranhas. DH had to pull them off of her and he was yelling and tossing them out of the pen and they were running around with intestines and such as if they were worms. I hate to cull all these chickens, but I also do not want this sort of aggression in my flock. I work late today, so I will have this morning to observe them. I should add that they had plenty of water, they were fed at 7am, but was out of food when I got home (4pm). They also may be a slight bit overcrowded, but not bad overcrowded. 15 others had already been pulled and put in another pen to heal from pecking. We also let them out in a fence area daily to "free range". Usually from 2pm-8pm or 4pm-8pm, whenever I get home. Ever heard anything like this? I am puzzled and ticked off as well. By the way, we went ahead & culled the pullet to put her out of her misery.

 

[BriardChickens]

Sorry for your loss...from what o hear most people don't breed with aggressive behaved chickens so either cull or rehome.
The other thing would be a time out for the aggressive one. After a few days of single life she'll be knocked off her thrown.
I've always had feed available to my chickens, they free feed so we don't rum into issues should I not make it home on time one day...

 

[Cold Canadian]

WARNING!!!! IF YOU ARE EATING OR HAVE A SQUIMISH STOMACH, DO NOT READ THIS POST!!!!

You've been warned. We had a horrible thing happen yesterday and I'd like to know you opinions on correcting the problem. Or eliminating it. DH was mowing the grass & heard a ruckus from the pullet pen. These chickens have been aggressive. In that pen I have 20 pullets and cockrells purchased from feed store and local breeders. There are Cuckoo marans, Easter Eggers, Light Brahmas, Jersey Giants, and a handful of others. I was on my way home from work & little girl was on her way home from school. Anyhow, DH stopped the lawn mower, went over to see what the commotion was and discovered they were all ripping out the insides of an Easter Egger pullet. She was one of the biggest ones and I never seen her act weak, or had to pull her to "heal" from pecking. They had blood everywhere and was running around pulling out her insides while she was alive.

They were all in a frenzy like piranhas. DH had to pull them off of her and he was yelling and tossing them out of the pen and they were running around with intestines and such as if they were worms. I hate to cull all these chickens, but I also do not want this sort of aggression in my flock. I work late today, so I will have this morning to observe them. I should add that they had plenty of water, they were fed at 7am, but was out of food when I got home (4pm). They also may be a slight bit overcrowded, but not bad overcrowded. 15 others had already been pulled and put in another pen to heal from pecking. We also let them out in a fence area daily to "free range". Usually from 2pm-8pm or 4pm-8pm, whenever I get home. Ever heard anything like this? I am puzzled and ticked off as well. By the way, we went ahead & culled the pullet to put her out of her misery.

I've had that happen , not sure if you could conclude that the chickens are aggressive towards another ? In most cases on starts pecking , draws blood and then the hunt is on ? Had a flock of 30 broilers once systematically kill each other off till there was two left ......then there was one ! I was told diet , etc by the supplier of the broilers and every thing I had was bang on so ? Sorry that it happened , but unfortunately it does ? .....................my view only

 

[vehve]

I would follow the flock closely to see what the problem seems to be. There may be an instigator, or then maybe that one EE was just a bird that was lowest in the pecking order. Last fall it looked like we had some aggression problems in our flock, but after we lost the weakest link, things calmed down significantly. It could be that your problem has already solved itself. Lack of space may contribute to the issue too though, what kind of space are we talking about? I'd say that the 10sqf run space is a bare minimum, and if the birds aren't allowed to free range all the time, it can be a bit on the small side. All depends on total area and amount of birds too, 50 birds will require less space per bird than 5 birds do.

 

[BriardChickens]

I found a dead partridge chantecler in the coop this morning

her body looks fine, no broken neck, not body damage. Her "bum" looks bigger then I thought it should be. All the chickens (minus broody) were out free ranging last night. not sure what happened. This one laid nice big eggs, always in the 60g range.


In good news: I helped #4 out of it's shell. It was trying to come out of the small end of the egg and just didn't have enough room to squeeze out. I have partitioned off a section in the hovabator them to fully fluff out. Another one that's all "yellow".

After a quick clean of the brinsea I candled the 3 remaining eggs. 2 should do their external pip soon, and one just did it's internal pip.

My dog is a new story now. he is very concerned over the ruckus in the kitchen. If I don't respond to his nose poking over the counter he starts barking.

Pictures to come

 

[BriardChickens]

 

[vehve]

https://www.facebook.com/tsarja/media_set?set=a.10153001396027982.1073741832.786117981&type=3

Cool painted eggs.

 

[minihorse927]

what colors did she have in her flock?

 

[BriardChickens]

I am not sure, I'll ask her when I sent her my hatch results.

just checked my coop for eggs.. broody was off her nest. I hope that isn't a bad sign. Instead I got attacked by my EE who was in there doing her thing. learned my lesson a while ago, don't reach in unless hands are protected.

How much longer can the ducklings be in the incubator? the last 3 have internally pipped, thinking they'll be another 48 hrs...