Flock gone awry since adding new chickens. Help!

[gckiddhouse]

This past Spring, we hatched eggs under a broody hen. What fun!

Well, the fun is over!

The hen who hatched them is just an outcast now. That started as soon as she went broody and has continued. What is that about??

The roosters that she lovingly hatched and raised have made her and another of my hens their b*#@*es! They take turns at them and some of the other hens join in, too. It is like a bad prison scene in there! They will keep them from the food and water.

I have had to separate the two hens from the rest of the flock. There is one more hen that I need to keep from the roosters, but when I put her with the other 2 outcasts, she chases, mounts and pecks them! They have all become mean!

Okay, so the roosters probably have to go. (They are sooo beautiful, though! They are golden cuckoo marans from Melissa.) But, I am worried that even if we oust the roosters, the behavior model is there and the hens will just keep picking on these two.

Another problem I have is that they pick each other clean! One of my hens has a completely bare back! Why are they doing this? Some are feathered and some have been pecked bare.

Please help. I am ready to get rid of all of them!!

But we love having them.

Ugh.

 

[MissPrissy]

More than 1 rooster is too many roosters.

Chickens have a natural pecking order and you are seeing it in action. Those hens are on the very bottom of the order.


You can try taking out the most aggressive hens and putting back in the other 2 hens for about 10 days. Then put the other hens back in. You will have shaken up the order of things and the more dominate hens coming back in may end up near the bottom.

I, myself, would just split the flock for awhile before adding them back in.