Help! Hens Fighting

[Limet8]

My leghorn recently started pecking and scratching one of my rhode island reds. The Rhode Island Red is constantly bloody and so is the leghorn. I think that because the leghorn is pecking the Rhode Island, the rhode island is pecking/scratching back. I need to stop this. PLEASE HELP!!

 

[nbenevento]

Give us a little more information. How old are they? We're they just put together? How many hens are in the flock? Are you separating them when blood is drawn?

 

[Mrs. K]

almost always this behavior is due to insufficient space and overcrowding. As the birds grow, they need more space. Put up a pallet on bricks, put a roost in the run, or a tree branch, put a box in kitty corner. It helps to create mulitiple levels in the run, and hideout areas, where birds can get away from each other.

It seems counter intuitive, if you put stuff in there, it will make for less space, but it often gives more space, for example below the pallet and on top of the pallet, doubles that area.

It makes the space less boring, birds can jump up on things, down under things, around the corner. It can help a less aggressive bird get away from a more aggressive bird.

Mrs K

 

[Limet8]

Thank you for the advice. My chickens are 1 year old and have been together since birth. I have 3 birds and each bird has more than 6 square feet of a coop. They are also let out to roam free in my yard everyday.

 

[Mrs. K]

There can still be a space problem, even if they were raised together, they are now bigger, and need more space. If they are pecking each other bloody, they cannont get away from each other before they start to bleed.

Sometimes it can help if you up the protien, by using either dry cat food, or by higher protien chicken feed, I have had recommended to me and have used a little red meat to the diet will also help, sometimes.

Mrs K