Help! My chicken is being picked on

[UrbanHenKW123]

Hi everyone ! I posted last week about one of my three hens (small suburban backyard setup)
Well all week my husband and I have been putting pick no more lotion on her. I’m trying to keep her with the other two as long as I can. But this morning I noticed that she was picked at pretty bad. She’s missing all her feathers behind her legs on one side and starting to get pretty bare on the other. Her bare skin looked like it had been pecked at. Her comb was bleeding a bit. I don’t think they touched her all week - just this morning. They don’t show any signs of wanting to pick her during the day. She is the smallest and most docile out of the three of them. They were doing fine until about 2-3 weeks ago when this all started. We put on a run extension, upped their protein intake and built them a larger dust bath (seemed to be fighting over it). I’m starting to suspect that since the days are shorter, our automatic door opener isn’t opening early enough for them and they’re waking up hungry and thirsty (food and water is in the run) and it’s pissing them off not being able to get out for over an hour. This wasn’t a problem in the summer bc the door was open before they were up.

Anyway I put some petroleum jelly on her comb and more pick no more lotion. I’m thinking that if it happens again I’ll take her out and put her in a cage I have in the garage at night. Is it ok to separate her at night ? Or will they attack her when I bring her back to the run in the morning? (How fast do they forget members of their flock) Any other tips ?! I’d love to hear it !! I don’t want them to kill her.

 

[ValerieJ]

(small suburban backyard setup)

This is what concerns me. Most of the time, picking is because there is a lack of space. They need lots of it, more than the 10 sf per chicken IMO. In the coop, 4 sf min per chicken.

A picture of your set up would help here.

Taking her out and putting her in the garage every night will get old fast for both you and her, so you need to address the problem at the coop. Can the automatic door be adjusted to open earlier?

In addition to enough space, there should be obstacles inside the run to give her places to get away from her tormentors. No dead ends, just places she can hide or run behind, or jump up on.

 

[UrbanHenKW123]

This is what concerns me. Most of the time, picking is because there is a lack of space. They need lots of it, more than the 10 sf per chicken IMO. In the coop, 4 sf min per chicken.

A picture of your set up would help here.

Taking her out and putting her in the garage every night will get old fast for both you and her, so you need to address the problem at the coop. Can the automatic door be adjusted to open earlier?

In addition to enough space, there should be obstacles inside the run to give her places to get away from her tormentors. No dead ends, just places she can hide or run behind, or jump up on.

Oh yes for sure. Our coop meets the chicken math but we added onto the run as I mentioned to give them extra space. I just adjusted the times to open earlier and close later. There’s plenty of places that she can go to get away. The only time that’s not the case is when the coop door was shut. I’m pretty sure they were waking up before the sun. Probably about 6 and then the door was only opening around 730-8 some days bc the weather is gloomy and it’s not as light out. I’ve been watching them for the past week and they are all fine during the day. So I’m crossing my fingers that’s it.
So Other than that I’m looking for some other advice. Stuff I may not be thinking about. And at what point do you remove them?

 

[UrbanHenKW123]

This is what concerns me. Most of the time, picking is because there is a lack of space. They need lots of it, more than the 10 sf per chicken IMO. In the coop, 4 sf min per chicken.

A picture of your set up would help here.

Taking her out and putting her in the garage every night will get old fast for both you and her, so you need to address the problem at the coop. Can the automatic door be adjusted to open earlier?

In addition to enough space, there should be obstacles inside the run to give her places to get away from her tormentors. No dead ends, just places she can hide or run behind, or jump up on.

 

[ValerieJ]

I have certainly had a pullet in sick bay before because the pecking got so bad that she lost the back of her head! And by the way, I had 5 pullets and 1 cockerel at the time, in the 4x8 coop (4x10 with nest boxes included), and the 4,000 sf run, so it had nothing to do with space. In that case, I got rid of the one I determined was the aggressor, which was the cockerel. That was my first year with chickens, and I've since heard that it would be very rare for a cockerel or rooster to ever hurt a pullet or hen. I just know that when I took him out, the severe pecking problem went away, although there was always a little bit of aggression in that first flock.

So, what am I saying? That I'm not sure if you should separate her. I wish you could get Blu-Kote because one reason the others are pecking at her is because they see the red spot. Blu-Kote turns it blue (or purple) and that helps a lot. When my pullet was healed enough to go back out, that's what I used on her and it worked. But, of course, the cockerel was also gone.

It sounds like you are doing all the right things to remedy the situation to me. Are there several feeding and watering stations? That sometimes very helpful too.

For some reason, I have been blessed with a few aggressive chickens over my 4 short years of chicken rearing. Some people just have peaceful flocks. I have that now, but I'm unable to bring in my 4 month old chicks yet because of one particular hen who is having none of it. In the end, if I can't integrate successfully because of her, she is the one I will deal with. I'll start by taking her out of the flock for a few days, and if she is still a problem, I'll take her out for a couple weeks. I'll do this in an adjacent run, but if I still have trouble with her, I will move her completely out of sight on her own, perhaps in my fenced garden, and then reintroduce her in a couple weeks. I'll do all I can to keep her out of the soup pot, but at some point I will give up on an aggressive chicken for the sake of the flock. She is aggressive with me too, and I am always teaching her that's not okay.

Good luck! And do keep us posted on how it works out.

 

[ValerieJ]

That's a very cute coop. What is the overall square footage separately of the outdoor and indoor space? It looks big enough for 3 chickens in the picture, but it's hard to tell for sure. Did you say you added chunnels to this, or am I seeing the addition on the right there?

 

[UrbanHenKW123]

I have certainly had a pullet in sick bay before because the pecking got so bad that she lost the back of her head! And by the way, I had 5 pullets and 1 cockerel at the time, in the 4x8 coop (4x10 with nest boxes included), and the 4,000 sf run, so it had nothing to do with space. In that case, I got rid of the one I determined was the aggressor, which was the cockerel. That was my first year with chickens, and I've since heard that it would be very rare for a cockerel or rooster to ever hurt a pullet or hen. I just know that when I took him out, the severe pecking problem went away, although there was always a little bit of aggression in that first flock.

So, what am I saying? That I'm not sure if you should separate her. I wish you could get Blu-Kote because one reason the others are pecking at her is because they see the red spot. Blu-Kote turns it blue (or purple) and that helps a lot. When my pullet was healed enough to go back out, that's what I used on her and it worked. But, of course, the cockerel was also gone.

It sounds like you are doing all the right things to remedy the situation to me. Are there several feeding and watering stations? That sometimes very helpful too.

For some reason, I have been blessed with a few aggressive chickens over my 4 short years of chicken rearing. Some people just have peaceful flocks. I have that now, but I'm unable to bring in my 4 month old chicks yet because of one particular hen who is having none of it. In the end, if I can't integrate successfully because of her, she is the one I will deal with. I'll start by taking her out of the flock for a few days, and if she is still a problem, I'll take her out for a couple weeks. I'll do this in an adjacent run, but if I still have trouble with her, I will move her completely out of sight on her own, perhaps in my fenced garden, and then reintroduce her in a couple weeks. I'll do all I can to keep her out of the soup pot, but at some point I will give up on an aggressive chicken for the sake of the flock. She is aggressive with me too, and I am always teaching her that's not okay.

Good luck! And do keep us posted on how it works out.

Thanks for the reply ! Wow sounds like you’ve had quite the experience with aggressive chickens. Lol.
Ya I don’t think we can get the blue kote stuff in Canada. It was recalled or something. The pick no more does kind of the same thing. It’s purple and when you put it on it turns dark. But I find it fades fast. definitely smells strong though!

 

[UrbanHenKW123]

That's a very cute coop. What is the overall square footage separately of the outdoor and indoor space? It looks big enough for 3 chickens in the picture, but it's hard to tell for sure. Did you say you added chunnels to this, or am I seeing the addition on the right there?

That's a very cute coop. What is the overall square footage separately of the outdoor and indoor space? It looks big enough for 3 chickens in the picture, but it's hard to tell for sure. Did you say you added chunnels to this, or am I seeing the addition on the right there?

Thank you!
The chunnels are the addition to the run. It’s on the right and loops around the back. It’s 4X8 in total plus the chunnels. The coop itself is 4x4.
that’s why I’m feeling pretty discouraged. I feel like I’m doing everything I can besides letting them live in my house.

 

[ValerieJ]

Thank you!
The chunnels are the addition to the run. It’s on the right and loops around the back. It’s 4X8 in total plus the chunnels. The coop itself is 4x4.
that’s why I’m feeling pretty discouraged. I feel like I’m doing everything I can besides letting them live in my house.

I got discouraged a few times too with aggressive pullets/hens. Try to figure out who is the aggressor and take her out for a few days. It might knock her down a notch or two in the pecking order.

 

[sourland]

My thought is that feather picking/plucking is more a boredom thing than dominance/pecking order. Something needs to break the boredom and this bad habit. If all else fails, Pin Less Peepers can be used to break the habit.