Found Crevecoeur Dead on Floor

[DanverGuy]

Hey everyone!

Today I went out to feed the chickens and found one of my 2 month old crevs dead on the floor. There's about 18 of the same age in the pen and they seem healthy and get fed twice daily. At first I thought a predator had got in but there's no signs of entry and that's the only one that was dead. Yesterday they were fine. The other ones were picking on it and almost half the birds body was picked away. What could it be? Is it more likely a predator or did they gang up on her? I've never had anything like this happen before!! The other birds in the pen are about 12 rir and then there was the 6 crevs. Thanks for any advice!!

 

[Eggcessive]

I would look at the amount of room they have to see if they are crowded. Are they free fed an 18-20% protein balanced chick feed? I would also spend some time with the birds to see if there are any highly aggressive birds. If a chick is injured, feather-picked, or has a vent prolapse, the others will cannibalize a bird. The more they can be let outside the less bored they would be. If any chicken has any red or picked areas, they should be separated or have BluKote or an anti-pick lotion applied. Hatchery RIR are mixed (if they are that,) and can be a bit aggressive sometimes. Sorry for your loss.

 

[welasharon]

How big is the pen? That's a lot of chickens together. They recommend around four square feet per chicken...but more is better.

 

[DanverGuy]

Hey everyone... the pen is 8'x8'. Been feeding them starter twice daily and recently started giving some scratch as a treat to see how they do with it... they seem to like it. I went in and picked up all the Crev's and examined them. I think they've been getting picked on a bit by the RIR juveniles. Tomorrow they're going in their own pen! Yay! Hopefully I won't have anymore issues. The Crev's sure are a tame and gentle breed. I love them. They seem to be the smartest out of all of my birds so far too. Hopefully this won't happen again!

 

[Sylvester017]

Hey everyone... the pen is 8'x8'. Been feeding them starter twice daily and recently started giving some scratch as a treat to see how they do with it... they seem to like it. I went in and picked up all the Crev's and examined them. I think they've been getting picked on a bit by the RIR juveniles. Tomorrow they're going in their own pen! Yay! Hopefully I won't have anymore issues. The Crev's sure are a tame and gentle breed. I love them. They seem to be the smartest out of all of my birds so far too. Hopefully this won't happen again!

Crevies are such beautiful gentle souls. So sorry about the loss of your Crevie chick.

Crevie hens are a non-combative breed like Polish, Ameraucana, Araucana, EEs, Houdan, Breda, Cochins, Faverolles, Sultan, Dominiques, Silkies, and most bantam breeds. Non-combative means they choose fleeing over fighting. They will fight only as a last resort. Our Ameraucana would rather flee than fight an aggressor. Whereas a RIR or Leghorn would promptly stand up to an aggressor.

Other gentler breeds in the larger-size category would be Sussex, Brahma, Jersey Giant.

Wilder temperament types are the Braekel (Campine) or Gull-type breeds, Jaerhon, Dandarawi, Fayoumi, Sicilians, Cornish (Indian Game), Malay or other game breeds.

Assertive breeds would be your Mediterranean class (Leghorns, Minorca, Buttercups, Black Spanish, Andalusians, Catalanas, Empordanesa, Penedesenca, etc). Most dual-purpose breeds like RIR, NHR, BR, Orp, 'Lorp, Wyans, Marans, Java, Sexlink, etc are assertive to aggressive birds. If there is a RIR in a mixed flock they will most likely wind up at the top of the pecking order because they are assertive and large enough to claim top position.

None of the breeds mentioned are bad breeds. In fact as day-old chicks mixed breeds seem to co-exist but the differences in breed temperaments becomes apparent as early as their juvenile months. Many are actually quite friendly with their human owners. However, there is mis-judgment on an owners' part in mixing the non-combative breeds along with the assertive/aggressive/wilder temperament breeds. Equal weights of breeds as well as equal temperaments in a flock are important in a mixed flock so a 2-lb bird is not bullied by a 9-lb breed. From experience I do not mix non-combative breed pullets with assertive-type breed pullets.

We want a peaceful flock that are not only friendly with us but co-exist with each other without injury. We aren't zoned for roos which would probably keep squabbles down in a flock - we can only have hens. We gave up a colorful egg basket in order to keep non-combative breeds weighing 5-lb or less in our free-range backyard flock. Though Sussex, Brahma, and JGs are gentle giants they weigh in excess of the average dual-purpose breeds so we do not incorporate them into our gentle under-5-lb flock. Even a gentle 9-lb giant can be tempted to bully a 2-lb bantam just because they can - it's a chicken thing!

I share this after experiences with Leghorns (different varieties) and Marans (Cuckoo) which we had to rehome because of their aggressive bullying of the gentler breeds. We love Leghorns who are productive and consistent layers like Sexlinks but their behavior is assertive to downright cannibalistic toward non-combative breeds after they reach maturity at around 18 months to 2 years old. The Mediterranean class breeds can be mixed together or added to a dual-purpose flock but would not put Meds into a non-combative flock.

On very large acreages where non-combative breeds can find refuge from the aggressive breeds it might work out to mix flocks but in confined average backyards there are no suitable hiding places for the gentle breeds. It pays to do homework and research before adding breeds to a mixed flock because not all breeds are JUST chickens but have individual breed behaviors not compatible with certain other breeds.

This has just been our experience and wanted to share if it helps anyone else.