Hello! I'm from Oregon and had chickens for three years. We had six( three white rhode islands and three reds) lost one a month ago. We got two new half silkies half aracaunas and a mixed breed rooster yesterday. Excited for new chickens, our old ladies have been a problem from the start. We have had a pecking issue from the beginning and tried everything to stop it. Finally we gave up and just let them do it. They are giving us only one egg a day so we did some changes to the coop and have decided to get new ones. We hope with a rooster our new hens will be happy once we get our new ladies and add them to the new coop. Sad to have our others gone but don't want the pecking issues to continue with our new ones if we keep them. Glad to be apart of BYC and learn lots more.
I had RIR's twice, and got rid of them for that reason. I tried everything to stop them. At one point we had to separate them until they healed up. Then they started again. All red breeds are hyper. The third time I stopped giving them high amounts of protein. Protein is an energy boost like a drug to red breeds. That change in feed made the difference. I had been hatching chicks weekly for years and never had a problem with chicks picking. Then when one vacation years back, a family member switched to game bird feeder. What a mess up. the chicks were pecking each other and they were all bloody in the tail section. I switched them back to 16% chick starter, and problem solved. You may need to cut them back on proteins. Too high a energy level I find can cause pecking. It wires them up like a shot of coffee with caffine. Good luck!
Welcome to BYC Glad you joined us! This may help: https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/bullying-behavior-in-chickens Best of luck!
