Help, Layers always fighting!

[reelmza]

My one year old (brown coloured) hybrid layers always beat up their mates.

When i separate the beat up layers to a different room, they gang up the weaker ones among them too, I'm now out of empty Pens and i cant mix up the other layers back with their mates.

Total layers: 63

Main Pen Size: 5 x 2.5 Meters (I will call this Room 1)

Layers in Room 1: 55

Layers Hated: four in Room 2 & and three in Room 3



Please help, some also got bumble foot at chronic stage. Some videos suggest i cut it open and treat it!

 

[Sequel]

Can you post some pictures of your set up? It sounds like they need more space.

 

[reelmza]

Can you post some pictures of your set up? It sounds like they need more space.

Okay Sire

 

[reelmza]

its not really that neat tho, ill send it first thing after i get home

 

[Dephora]

its not really that neat tho, ill send it first thing after i get home

Don't worry about mess. I think we all expect 55 chickens in a pen will get pretty messy.

 

[reelmza]

Can you post some pictures of your set up? It sounds like they need more space.

Sir i finally got to town this week and here is the picture of their pen.

Am really disturbed. Some chickens had to stay all day standing at the window in order to escape lynching by their "Mates"

They are not even that compacted, each chicken i know has atleast 30cm of free space if they'd be put on a straight line

 

[reelmza]

Don't worry about mess. I think we all expect 55 chickens in a pen will get pretty messy.

Some even got bumble foot maam!

 

[LaFleche]

Hello reelmza,

from what it seems by your pictures there are far too many chickens in this room, so if you have the facilities I would advise to divide the number in half .

In addition I would suggest the following:

1. Set up wooden roosts so they can retreat and get some rest if need be.
2. You might want to provide some tubs with fine fresh sand for dust-bathing, which reduces stress and aggressive behaviour.
3. To avoid boredom and distract them from pecking and bullying the other hens you could provide some fresh vegetables i.e. carrots or broccoli or even some apples or corncobs.
4. You could even mount some feeders and water suspenders up on a second level so the bullied chickens will be able to eat and drink as well.
5. What kind of bedding do you use? And how often do you clean out and change the bedding? The bedding I see in the picture looks quite rough and hard, so maybe this could be the reason for the bumble foot problem.

 

[Eggcessive]

Do they go outside? Overcrowding and boredom from not getting outside to roam is likely the problem. What are you feeding them? Are they on a balanced chicken feed? What is the protein percentage? Most grown chickens need 4 square feet of room per chicken, and outside they need even more room. Here is some reading about feather picking:
https://poultry.extension.org/artic...ibalism-in-small-and-backyard-poultry-flocks/

 

[Dephora]

I agree with everyone else. 30cm per chicken is not enough. They need minimum 1.2 meters each. That should really help with attacking eachother. Also as others said they need some roosts.

That looks like some bad bumblefoot, their bedding is getting too wet and not drying out, a lot of chickens in one room will do that. Is that the only one with it? What bedding are you using?