Laying hens now fighting?

[lazy gardener]

What do you have them on for feed? What is the protein content, and what is the mill date on your bag? Are you giving them any thing other than their prepared ration? I suggest that if they are on layer, or if the feed is more than 6 weeks old that you immediately get some animal protein into them. Increase their protein level for a month or so, and see if that makes a difference.

 

[thytay&chickenmomma]

What do you have them on for feed? What is the protein content, and what is the mill date on your bag? Are you giving them any thing other than their prepared ration? I suggest that if they are on layer, or if the feed is more than 6 weeks old that you immediately get some animal protein into them. Increase their protein level for a month or so, and see if that makes a difference.

I feed them Nature Wise brand layer pellets. Guaranteed Analysis includes:
•Crude Protein: 16.0% •Lysine: 0.75% •Methionine: 0.35% •Crude Fat: 2.5% •Crude Fiber: 6.0% •Calcium: 3.7% - 3.9% •Phosphorus: 0.45% •Salt: 0.25% - 0.65% •Sodium: 0.15% - 0.23%

I will have to check the date on the bag tomorrow, but I just purchased it yesterday from RK so I am sure it is in date. I give them a little treat of scratch grain, scraps we have left over from our meals, daily bunch of fresh broccoli or cauliflower, sometimes cabbage hung from string in the run. I pick squash, zucchini, and tomatoes out of the garden and give to them, cooked rice or beans, treats like raisins & meal worms, breads and things like that. They have access to oyster shells. Several feeding/watering stations for them all.They are not free range due to the dangerous animals that kill them when free ranging. How can I get more protein in them?

 

[aart]

Layer ration is fine if you don't feed them anything else, probably says so right on bag somewhere, something like 'intended to be sole ration'.
All those other foods are diluting the nutrients in the layer ration.

Many folks like I, feed a flock raiser/starter/grower/finisher type feed with 20% protein crumble full time to all ages and genders, as non-layers(chicks, males and molting birds) do not need the extra calcium that is in layer feed and chicks and molters can use the extra protein. Makes life much simpler to store and distribute one type of chow that everyone can eat. I do grind up the crumbles (in the blender) for the chicks for the first week or so.

The higher protein crumble also offsets the 8% protein scratch grains and other kitchen/garden scraps I like to offer. I adjust the amounts of other feeds to get the protein levels desired with varying situations.

Calcium should be available at all times for the layers, I use oyster shell mixed with rinsed, dried, crushed chicken egg shells in a separate container.

Animal protein (a freshly trapped mouse, mealworms, a little cheese - beware the salt content, meat scraps) is provided once in while and during molting and/or if I see any feather eating.

 

[thytay&chickenmomma]

Layer ration is fine if you don't feed them anything else, probably says so right on bag somewhere, something like 'intended to be sole ration'.
All those other foods are diluting the nutrients in the layer ration.

Many folks like I, feed a flock raiser/starter/grower/finisher type feed with 20% protein crumble full time to all ages and genders, as non-layers(chicks, males and molting birds) do not need the extra calcium that is in layer feed and chicks and molters can use the extra protein. Makes life much simpler to store and distribute one type of chow that everyone can eat. I do grind up the crumbles (in the blender) for the chicks for the first week or so.

The higher protein crumble also offsets the 8% protein scratch grains and other kitchen/garden scraps I like to offer. I adjust the amounts of other feeds to get the protein levels desired with varying situations.

Calcium should be available at all times for the layers, I use oyster shell mixed with rinsed, dried, crushed chicken egg shells in a separate container.

Animal protein (a freshly trapped mouse, mealworms, a little cheese - beware the salt content, meat scraps) is provided once in while and during molting and/or if I see any feather eating.

I just started the layer pellets 2 weeks ago when the hens started laying. Flock raiser, chick starter, laying pellets, scratch grains, and meatbird crumbles are what I have access too. I will switch to the flock raiser now for all my chickens knowing I can give this even to my laying hens because I had no idea I could and it helps buying 1 feed instead of several, thank you for the information!

I do give oyster shells to the girls so they have that, and I dry and crush up eggshells too and add to it when I have them. I will give them meat scraps too from now on, honestly, I did not realize chickens could have meat, but now I know.

I have checked on the girls 3 times today already, and everything seems much calmer and quieter in the main coop now, so far. Basically all of the RIRs and ISA brown chickens I bought 1st on 4-8-17,they don't bother each other and are fine. There are only 3 girls from the 2nd set I bought on 4-20-17 that they are allowing in the main coop with them they are not attacking, yet. All of the chickens I have had to remove and separate are from the 2nd set of chickens I got on 4-20-17. I think this is a case of severe bullying started by the 2 laying hens or something. I would think if the laying hens were just being aggressive hens, they would pick on even their own breed, but they haven't at all. They don't even bother each other over pecking order.

 

[lazy gardener]

I'm hoping that by getting more protein into them, especially the addition of animal protein will curb this behavior. Time to clean out that freezer! Got any old meat lurking in there?

 

[thytay&chickenmomma]

I'm hoping that by getting more protein into them, especially the addition of animal protein will curb this behavior. Time to clean out that freezer! Got any old meat lurking in there?

Yes, actually I do! I have a deep freezer full of meats. Can they have basically any meat? I have ground chuck, all types of pork, and of course chicken...can they eat, chicken?? I did not know they could have meat or we would had been feeding them our leftovers after meals.

Several others mentioned wanting to see pics of my coop. I was able to get some quickly. Not the best pics,had blu-kote all over me thanks to a chicken going nuts while applying it and spilling the stuff all over me. Coop house is 10ft(L)x10ft(W)x12ft(H) with 8-2ftx3ft nesting boxes built on the side and run is 12ft(L)x12ft(W)x10ft(H)

Chicken Run...please disregard the mess around the run, after having to build all of the temp. homes for all the chickens I separated yesterday, and still working on it all today, there is quite the mess. You can see part of the temp. places I had to build in this pic to the right.

Someone else mentioned doing the deep liter method, I do use that method and it works great.

The inside pics are me taking the pics from inside the chicken run, bending in thru the chicken door, so not the best and does not show all of the inside but it is close enough, was in a hurry. Coop was my sons playhouse and is fairly large.The chickens never are crowded inside the house, plenty of roosts, not all of the roosts are in the pics.Coop house is 10ft(L)x10ft(W)x12ft(H) with 8-2ftx3ft nesting boxes built on the side and run is 12ft(L)x12ft(W)x10ft(H)

This RIR is 1 of the bullying hens...she looks so sweet though!

 

[lazy gardener]

Nice job.