How intense is your pecking order?

[FrostRanger]

You could try to introduce mature, hardy, woody plants in pots to the run. Small trees, berry shrubs, stuff like that. Young plants are easy to destroy, and stuff like strawberries and herbs, chickens will just absolutely shred them within hours or days. Mature tomato plants are great for shade and having dirt baths under, plus they can snack on the tomatoes!
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Raspberry plants are great because the thorns keep the chickens from tearing up the stems. You can kind of braid and shape the stems into a diy shelter! Mulberry bushes are sturdy, great shelter, great roosting and foraging opportunity. We have a few growing wild on the property that the girls routinely pick berries off the ground under.

You can try growing vine plants up the side of the run, like beans, peas, ivy, nasturtium, etc.

Look into native plants that will grow well in your environment too, if you want to go the planting route. Native plants tend to do much better in the long run and are healthier for the environment!

Be mindful mulberry can get very tall, we have one in our driveway and it's probably around 30ft tall and that's evidently on the shorter end of how tall they can get, some can get up to 80ft tall. Ours is unfortunately a male tree so no fruit but it does have nice flowers in spring

My flock made up of 3 easter eggers, 3 lakeside eggers and a buff orpington (all hens) is pretty peaceful other than normal pecking order stuff. I pretty rarely free range and they have a 12x12 covered run they hang out in. No idea why your flock is so high strung, some flocks are just like that unfortunately, you've been given some pretty good suggestions to hopefully help things

Adding a rooster may or may not help things. For some people adding a rooster completely sorts things out, he keeps things from getting out of hand and breaks up fights, for others a rooster does absolutely nothing, he'll pretty much just ignore the fighting and do his own thing and unfortunately for some the rooster adds his own drama to the mix. Not saying that a good rooster can't help but finding a good rooster that does keep the peace can be an ordeal in of itself. Personally, unless you already want or need a rooster I wouldn't get a rooster hoping he'll solve the problem, he might or he might cause more drama himself

 

[ValkerieGunn]

My Bantam Cochins sorted themselves out early and once introduced to the rest of the flock who free range they stay near the older hens who normally stay around the back of the yard while the rest of the spring babies have claimed the front yard. Although my 2 Bantam Cochin cockerals are definitely in charge and putting the other larger cockerals in their place until I figure out who is staying or going.

 

[K0k0shka]

Chicken temperaments can vary a lot between breeds and between individuals within the same breed. And not all breeds get along well together. I picked my breeds to be easy-going, non-confrontational and generally submissive, so they’d be compatible with each other. They’ve been getting along fine for the past 5+ years. I have several generations total, of a mix of Orpington, Barnevelder, and Wyandotte. The first group of peers had no drama between them. After that, there have been minor scuffles only when adding new chicks to the flock (or rather, when their mom stops actively protecting them as they grow up, and the elders remind them of the pecking order). Still no plucked feathers or blood though. My alpha hen (one of the Orps) maintains the order (I have no males) and is a very just ruler. She will break up any arguments and discipline whoever started it.

 

[thecatumbrella]

Oh wow. Just noticed my little murder muppets featured on the front page!

For anyone tuning in, they've actually simmered down a bit since I posted. I put in two new enrichment items that are pretty simple. One is a cage cup with crumble that can only be accessed from a specific perch. The other is a hanging chick feeder that also can only be accessed from a specific intersection of perches.

My bossy britches d'Uccle, who rarely eats at a feeder, (I'm not even sure how she's still alive) is obsessed with the new anti-gravity arrangements.

 

[DSJMHenDen]

Oh wow. Just noticed my little murder muppets featured on the front page!

For anyone tuning in, they've actually simmered down a bit since I posted. I put in two new enrichment items that are pretty simple. One is a cage cup with crumble that can only be accessed from a specific perch. The other is a hanging chick feeder that also can only be accessed from a specific intersection of perches.

My bossy britches d'Uccle, who rarely eats at a feeder, (I'm not even sure how she's still alive) is obsessed with the new anti-gravity arrangements.

Stealing that feeder from a perch idea! No big issues over on my flock, but never hurts to add an extra step to harassing the new pullets would you mind clarifying what a cage cup is? Thank you!

 

[thecatumbrella]

Stealing that feeder from a perch idea! No big issues over on my flock, but never hurts to add an extra step to harassing the new pullets would you mind clarifying what a cage cup is? Thank you!

Of course! These are the ones I use.

 

[KCGirl]

Chicken temperaments can vary a lot between breeds and between individuals within the same breed. And not all breeds get along well together. I picked my breeds to be easy-going, non-confrontational and generally submissive, so they’d be compatible with each other. They’ve been getting along fine for the past 5+ years. I have several generations total, of a mix of Orpington, Barnevelder, and Wyandotte. The first group of peers had no drama between them. After that, there have been minor scuffles only when adding new chicks to the flock (or rather, when their mom stops actively protecting them as they grow up, and the elders remind them of the pecking order). Still no plucked feathers or blood though. My alpha hen (one of the Orps) maintains the order (I have no males) and is a very just ruler. She will break up any arguments and discipline whoever started it.

Since you're experienced with introducing young ones... hoing you can make a suggestion of at what age to introduce and at what level of oversight? I've read to be there all day to mediate, or just to add at night and then have a space with food and water that only the young ones can enter. have 3 six-week old hens that went to sleep tonight in the big girl house on the roost along with the other 8 one-year year old hens. Wondering if I need to move them back to the young girl house since I won't be there to protect them in the am? At what age can you mix? They were in a kennel in the big girl house for 5 weeks, then in their own condo but within sight. Any suggestions appreciated. Thanks!

 

[peafowl_Lover]

My girls can be mean one day and be nice another day. So Dove hatched out 1 Chick, Sesame. They both are terrified of Speckles who was at the bottom of the pecking order. Speckles is taking advantage of the mama and baby so they run and scream even if Speckles just walks past. Then Dove hates her sister and they fight a lot and Dove leaves her baby to fight, and my rooster Walter just stands beside them and watches the fight. So Sesame and Dove has to stay in the coop until Sesame is big enough that the cats won't bother him. Probably another week or so. More fights have been happening as I lost 4 of my girls to different freak accidents .
And in 3 weeks I'm getting some salmon faverolle pullets so there will be more chaos. And I'm making a predator proof run for them, so they will be a bit closely confined. Oh dear!

 

[Tiny raptor]

@TOMTE @Mrs. K

Setup attached. 9 foot x 18 foot run with 6 bantams (so 27 sqft/bird). Two feeders with visual blocks. Two waterers with partial visual block. Two dig boxes. One is a new "subterranean" style that allows them to get 6" down into the cool dirt. The other is a sand box that normally has a treat dispenser over it. That has been removed because it was making them insane over the sand box (even though the dispenser only went off once a day with whole-grain feed). I also use the sand box for their food kick ball. The 36 sqft jungle gym has 4 food trays that are only accessible from certain perches. I also have 2 poppy peck toys (you can see one hanging in the very front) with larger crumble that sit on opposite sides of the run. Those have also been removed temporarily. We scatter all flock pellets along the perimeter 2x/day for them to forage. Twice a week, I'll also scatter sprouts. They dust bathe everywhere in the mulch (literally everywhere ). Unfortunately, I cannot make the run bigger at this time. But my husband and I are discussing possible layout changes. Most things have to be placed centrally because that is the only section that stays bone dry. The left wall is empty most of the time because it both gets cooked in the sun and drenched in the rain. I intended to add a couple of large planters around it to jump on/hide around, but haven't gotten to it yet.

TLDR: 162 sqft covered run. Many, many ways to procure either crumble or pellets with fresh greens twice a week. I've only removed 2 enrichment items due to excessive aggression around them.

wow what a beautiful run!

 

[TOMTE]

My girls can be mean one day and be nice another day. So Dove hatched out 1 Chick, Sesame. They both are terrified of Speckles who was at the bottom of the pecking order. Speckles is taking advantage of the mama and baby so they run and scream even if Speckles just walks past. Then Dove hates her sister and they fight a lot and Dove leaves her baby to fight, and my rooster Walter just stands beside them and watches the fight. So Sesame and Dove has to stay in the coop until Sesame is big enough that the cats won't bother him. Probably another week or so. More fights have been happening as I lost 4 of my girls to different freak accidents .
And in 3 weeks I'm getting some salmon faverolle pullets so there will be more chaos. And I'm making a predator proof run for them, so they will be a bit closely confined. Oh dear!

Give them lots to do in the run and they should be okay. If you're able to, let them range with supervision for about a half hour a few days a week. Then they can burn off excess energy doing natural chicken stuff!