loosing chicks to bulling?

[FreedomBill]

I have a small batch of chickens 25; started with road island reds, then added some Easter egg chicks, then the last batch of 10 Amerconnas. Lately I have been losing chicks to what looks like bulling ; feathers missing from tail then up the back. Some overnight in the roost are just dead. they are all in the same roost now and I am wondering if some just don't like that?

 

[PrettyBirdRocky]

We may need a few more items of information.
Ages:
Feed:
Photos of run: space:
Location:
How far apart did you introduce the adds?

 

[RubelliteRose]

What are the age differences between your groups? I have had age differences of as little as a week result in mild bullying. I had a difference of 3 weeks this year and the older girls have yet to accept the youngest girl.

 

[RubelliteRose]

An additional thought, are all the bullied/dead chicks from the same group? Where did they come from - is it possible that they arrived with a disease, mites, or lice?

 

[Debbie292d]

So sorry for your loss. That's disheartening!

We can only assume the ones killed were the youngest ones? I would pull any remaining ones you have of that same age/breed out until you can figure out who the aggressor is.

We've have 6-week old chickens with eight that are 5 months old and other pens around here with different ages and no problems. Lot's of us do this without issues so there's either a homicidal chicken in there or something else is wrong.

Do they have a pen or free range? I'd watch them all together for about 20 minutes and see who's picking on whom.

 

[FreedomBill]

We may need a few more items of information.
Ages:
Feed:
Photos of run: space:
Location:
How far apart did you introduce the adds?

not sure how to post photos will get my granddaughter to help me with this later. Ages road island reds 19mos; Easter Eggers 14mos; Ameraconna''s 7mos; / Feed I just started Ferminting 2mos ago. the grains oats, wheat, chipped corn, & Flaxseed. I add a large cup full of starter grow & black oil sunflower seeds to their food. & once a week I add red pepper flakes. I have a transition roost inside the main run after 3mos lI let them integrate. I just re built my main roost that would hold all of them but the amerconnas has not wanted to go in together. I would come out at dark and they would be everywhere but in the main roost. So I decided to leave the door open to their pre-integration root & just let the 4 that are hold outs go into there. tonight. I live in Ok. my wife is from Indiana . I set and watch them all the time and mostly they all get along some time I have a pecking order fight & some times they all have an face off dance. I have checked for bugs or lice and found none.

 

[FreedomBill]

An additional thought, are all the bullied/dead chicks from the same group? Where did they come from - is it possible that they arrived with a disease, mites, or lice?

I lost 2 of my amerconnas a few weeks ago & 2 of my easter egg chicks this week. I can't blame it all on bulling a smaller chick I think it was but bot by one certain chick. I have a separation roost for chicks the are being picked on or just to try and save them.

 

[FreedomBill]

So sorry for your loss. That's disheartening!

We can only assume the ones killed were the youngest ones? I would pull any remaining ones you have of that same age/breed out until you can figure out who the aggressor is.

We've have 6-week old chickens with eight that are 5 months old and other pens around here with different ages and no problems. Lot's of us do this without issues so there's either a homicidal chicken in there or something else is wrong.

Do they have a pen or free range? I'd watch them all together for about 20 minutes and see who's picking on whom.

different breeds not always the smallest.they have a 30x30x30 run and do not free range when we started this 2&1/2 years ago we were advised not to free range because of the bird flu. most of it happens at night in the roost. I see how fast they fly around the run I thought maybe they were just flying into the roost wall and breaking their necks. I have training in csi and have done my best look over each bird to find any wounds and find none on most of them after one dies the rest go to pecking them to pieces so this is a problem with many questions and few answers.

 

[PrettyBirdRocky]

Im not sure who to tag here, im not a feed expert by any means. Or a breed expert. I can offer my own advice from my own experience, but it doesn't always pertain to other flocks.

I stayed away from RIRs bc they tend to do best within their own breed--from family experience.

As we can't quite see your set up its hard to give space advice. And watching your flock is the vest to get an idea of how they interact with each other.

Feather picking can be a sign of bully and lacking nutrional needs- and boredom.

Hopefully you find useful information while you're here.

@Eggcessive @TwoCrows ?

 

[McChooky]

Somewhere in the midst of those hens with perfect feathers are your bullies .They're yanking the feathers out of the others and bullying them.After I rehomed the princesses with perfect feathers I ended up with a docile flock that rarely fight one another.Now my bullied hens have gone thru molt they have perfect feathers too