Have you ever had hens kill each other?

[rmurrayslcut]

I had an interesting discovery yesterday, something I've never seen in my seven years of chicken raising. I walked out of the coop into the pasture yesterday morning. Found one hen dead, with no visible injuries. Another lying three feet away, barely able to walk, with blood on top of her head.

The predator deaths I've had show signs of struggle (feathers everywhere). It seems a hawk would have eaten the birds, or finished off the surviving one. I've had deaths due to injury or accident, but in this instance there were two hens in close proximity to each other. The more I thought about it, I wondered if they were casualties of a particularly serious fight.

The flock is all Rhode Island Reds, 2-3 years old. They fight a little, and pick feathers out of each other, like a lot of hens do. So, Backyard Chickens Community, does it sound like these two might have had a battle to the death?

 

[Wezdin]

I've never had a fight to the death but probably would've had one without intervention. That was with roosters though, but i think it would be possible with hens.
Another thing to think of is that sick hens will get beat up on, even to death.

 

[Fmarie1016]

I had my lead hen kill my porcelain d'uccle rooster, he was much smaller than her and she had previously been grounded for bloodying him up the week before.

 

[chickens really]

Yes. Unfortunately it happens. My second flock of birds raised Chicks in my flock. Once the Pullets became layers the older hens would attack them and so would the Rooster. Totally tried to pick their heads off. Was brutal to witness. I got rid of all those birds.

 

[chrissynemetz]

How old were these birds?

 

[Ms Clucky]

I had my whole flock almost kill one of my hens. Fudge, my little BB Red hen was sick so we had to put her in a separate cage for almost a month. When she was better, she wanted to set. So I let her and she raised I think 6 chicks. I put her in with the flock and they started to attack her. It's a good thing I had the cage unlocked. I ran in there and saved her. She has a few scares but now she is one of the main hens. She beat one up at a time. It's like they forgot her. I don't know why. I had her in the same coop where they could see her. Everybody is fine right now but the are a little edge cause of the winter weather.

 

[Rammy]

Yes it unfortunately happens. Ive had several hens get ganged up on by other hens and pecked to death. Its horrible.

 

[Raeganmh02]

I have never had any of my flock kill another hen in my 8 years of raising chickens. It may have been a kyote or fox that got startled during the act and ran off, leaving them dead. I had a kyote get a couple of mine and leave them. The hens (leghorns) had little visible injury, and some blood on the head (like yours). A few days after finding my dead hens, I saw the kyote trying to get thought the pasture fence. It is hard to say with Chickens though.

 

[Shamo Hybrid]

One of my roosters got out of his cage and got into a brawl with another rooster, one died the next day and the other a few days after....... but these were Oriental Gamefowls, known for their aggressiveness and willingness to fight to the end. Usually with layers, one will back down within a minute or so, unless confined in a tight space and nowhere to run, they usually will not get beaten to death. But who knows.

 

[chrissynemetz]

I've never had a one on one fight between two adult hens. I've seen roosters in brutal fights, or the flock attack a new chicken. But I've never actually witnessed hens in a real fight.