Help! My chickens are fighting terribly!

[dileas]

We have a flock of 15 hens - most are older Isa Browns that we bought cheap from a neighbour. When we got them, they'd obviously been pecking each other really badly, but when they moved in here, they seemed really happy and it completely stopped. They'd also been barely laying, but started to lay really well and looked healthy, etc.

Since then we've added some Rhode Islands - 2 are older, 3 are young - and there's one odd cross breed who's much bigger than all the other birds.

The cross breed is very placid and basically gets left alone, but every single other bird in the flock is constantly harassing or being harassed. Some of the Isa Browns just will not do anything without attacking someone else - they're at their necks, ripping feathers out. One chook has lost half her feathers and looks a wreck, another has a raw behind, another has signs of blood around her tail feathers.

It's an absolute disaster and I have no idea what to do! The chooks have access to maybe an acre or more of land, heaps of grass, etc; their shed is 9sqm with plenty of perch space and they never seem to be making any sounds of fighting at night. There's always grain to spare, although they don't have free access at the moment because the goats are getting into it. I feed them every morning with heaps of grain.

Does anyone have any idea what to do? I'm at a loss and it's horrible seeing our lovely birds behaving like this... especially seeing as we've already lost 4 hens this year (2 to foxes, 1 to an accident and 1 to illness - I don't think anyone else is sick because we treated all the hens and that was a few months ago now).

Any ideas would be much appreciated. The worst thing is that the behaviour seems to be getting passed on - the 3 new chooks we have (we bought a few months ago as pullets) are starting to harass each other too.

 

[chick lovers]

Aww

i know what its like. one of my roosters at a very young age was pecked to the bone on his neck. I dont know what to say except that we separated him from the flock until he healed and know he is fine.

 

[GuppyTJ]

Dileas,

How did you introduce/integrate them? How long ago was it? Many of the experienced people here recommend confining the new chickens behind a fence of some kind but in with the existing flock. You leave them like this for at least a week. The idea is that the old flock gets used to the new chickens and understands that the new chickens have a right to be there. But, the new chickens are protected by the fence from the existing flock. I think the idea is to simply lessen the conflict in the long run using this method, when you do finally let them interact without a barrier between them.

My situation is different but in case it helps you, I've only done one integration, which in fact, I'm in the middle of it now. I brought in 6 new 9 week old pullets to my existing flock of 10 12 week olds, 3 pullets and 7 cockerals. I did this fence between them method for a week and they just integrated without the fence yesterday. So far... (I do mean that, so far) so good. It takes several weeks for they truly get used to each other so the verdict isn't in. They older/existing flock chases the new ones whenever they encounter them but so far (again, knock on wood), there has been no blood, no pulled out feathers, just a good deal of squauking. I also free range so the big/existing chicks leave the coop to the younger ones most of the day. The little ones are also continuing to roost separately on a little picnic bench seat I put in their fenced area of the coop. I also left the fence up but just open so anyone can come and go into the fenced in space. The new ones still use it as their safe place and I try to shoo the older/existing chicks out of there just so the little ones can have it mostly to themselves.

I also put out separate waterers and feeders so they don't have to compete for resources. And lots of things for them to run behind to get away. The little ones are surprisingly fast and seem to instinctively (again, so far) find a way to get away from the bigger ones.

I have no idea if this helps. My chicks are just that, chicks. Yours are adult chickens so this many not even apply but I thought I'd offer it just in case.

Guppy

 

[dileas]

Thank you so much for your reply, I really appreciate it!

The weird thing is that I don't think it's really about the new chickens.
The older lot of hens were introduced to each other maybe a year ago and there were no problems at all. The new ones seemed to settle in fine, they were smaller and younger and much much quicker, plus we had a few thorny bushes that they used to duck into if the older ones got too much, and they integrated without a problem at all.

The absolute worst of the fighting is between the Isa Browns who all came from the same property. They attack each other quite viciously. I mean, the whole flock is snapping at each other now, but there are particularly a few Isa Browns who seem to have it in for their coop-mates.

I think it's got much worse recently - maybe since they stopped laying for the winter?
I wish I knew what to do with them. I can't even separate out the aggressive ones because I can't tell which ones they are. I could separate the attacked ones, but having done that with a sick chook a while ago, even after 3 months the other chickens would attack her, so it was a permanent separation and we can't manage that with the fox issues here. I also find that some of the featherless ones are really aggressive too.

They don't have to compete for resources as there are several water dishes and I feed them the grain on the ground - I spread it out over a very large area so they can all eat on their own, but they still prefer to spend the whole time scaring the other chickens away rather than eating. *sigh*

Part of me is regretting taking these silly Isa Browns. They are nightmares for escaping and attacking, and seem to have created an unpleasant culture among the birds. We should've just gone for Rhode Islands from word go. :/ Ah well.

 

[dileas]

Actually... I just had a thought... I wonder if it is kind of a 'scarcity' thing after all.

We decided to let the goats into the chicken yard a while ago so they could eat the thorny bushes that were taking over. We also thought we'd let the chickens out into the goat yard where there's masses of grass.

That was all okay, except that the goats like the chicken food, so we stopped giving the hens free access to their grain and started hiding it and feeding them once a day.

Maybe they're feeling like there's no food most of the day so they have to fight more as they think it's scarce now or something. Maybe I need to kick the goats back out of the chicken yard and go back to having grain on tap all day... I wonder if that would help?

 

[GuppyTJ]

Dieas,

Well... I am at a loss to help you. I think you're idea of food scarcity due to the goats liking the feed is a good thought. Whenever I'm trying to problem solve something to do with animals, I know I end up trying 3 or 4 things before I figure out a solution that works. I train dogs for a hobby so I have a lot of experience with dog behaviors. Not chickens, but the concept is the same. Try to think like them as that's the first thing that must be done before you can fix something that isn't working for them and/or you.

As an example, my biggest challenge so far with animal behavior has been with one of my two dogs. My shepherd mutt, Shadow, went blind in a matter of weeks. So, we had to teach him a lot of new "skills" so he could live happily completely blind. Then... we brought in the chicks and had to then teach him what they were and then that he couldn't kill them. He's a killer by nature so this has taken work but he's getting it. It's just taking longer because he can't see. I could go on and on about trying to figure out what's going on in this doggy brain (is he staking them or is he sharing at them because he can't see them?) so I could train him to co-exist with the chicks.

But that's not the point of this. Your idea of removing the goats sounds like a good thing to try. Maybe it's the goats themselves? Maybe first, try removing the goats and still DON'T put out the food. If that helps, it was the goats. If it doesn't help, then try putting out the food AND removing the goats. Or, can you put up a temporary barrier up between the Isa Browns and the others? Or, just take a few that do seem aggressive and put them behind the barrier? Heck, I don't know but don't give up, keep trying things. You've made it clear you don't want to live like this, seeing them be mean constantly bickering and hurting each other. You shouldn't have to and it may mean sacrificing a few of the aggressive ones for the sake of harmony in the flock? Again, I'm just shooting in the wind but trying to help.

I hope someone else responds to this thread who has experience with this. I want to learn what others think/know.

Guppy