Hi Everyone,
I've had quite a day at my house with my chickens. My story is this: I have 7 birds. Two Barred Rocks, one RI Red, one Sexlink, one Light Brahma, and two black Silkie Bantams. All are hens. The Rocks, Red, and Sexlink I've had since chicks last May. The Brahma and Silkies I picked up over the summer. The Brahma is a couple of years old. The Silkies were born last March.
For the most part all of my birds have gotten along just fine. A couple of months ago, however I started noticing that one of the Barred Rocks would occasionally peck at one of my Silkies. She would run away and the rock would then leave here alone. It seemed as though the rock were just asserting her position in the flock. No feathers were torn out and no blood was ever shed.
I recently went away to New Hampshire for three days on vacation and had my father staying at my house to watch the dog and chickens. He's good about collecting eggs, watering, and feeding. Today when I went out to check for eggs and see how the girls were doing, I was mortified when I opened the door to the laying boxes and saw one of my little Silkies necks bare of skin and bloodied! Upon further investigation, I noticed the tail feathers of the RI Red and Sexlink were all missing! All of this happened since I left on Wednesday. Before I left none of my chickens had any feathers missing or blood on them nor had they ever.
I immediately took the Silkie out of the coop and set her up in the garage in a Rubber Maid bin with wood chips, water, and food. I quarantined the Barred Rocks in a separate enclosure within the run that I had previously made to introduce new chickens to the flock.
My questions are this:
I recently ordered 6 Golden Comets from my local Agway store. They should be in around March 21st. The chicken expert there told me that they were very docile birds. I'm hoping he's right as this is no fun....
My poor Silkie:
You can see the tail feathers missing on the Red. I couldn't get the Sexlink to cooperate in facing away from me:
I've had quite a day at my house with my chickens. My story is this: I have 7 birds. Two Barred Rocks, one RI Red, one Sexlink, one Light Brahma, and two black Silkie Bantams. All are hens. The Rocks, Red, and Sexlink I've had since chicks last May. The Brahma and Silkies I picked up over the summer. The Brahma is a couple of years old. The Silkies were born last March.
For the most part all of my birds have gotten along just fine. A couple of months ago, however I started noticing that one of the Barred Rocks would occasionally peck at one of my Silkies. She would run away and the rock would then leave here alone. It seemed as though the rock were just asserting her position in the flock. No feathers were torn out and no blood was ever shed.
I recently went away to New Hampshire for three days on vacation and had my father staying at my house to watch the dog and chickens. He's good about collecting eggs, watering, and feeding. Today when I went out to check for eggs and see how the girls were doing, I was mortified when I opened the door to the laying boxes and saw one of my little Silkies necks bare of skin and bloodied! Upon further investigation, I noticed the tail feathers of the RI Red and Sexlink were all missing! All of this happened since I left on Wednesday. Before I left none of my chickens had any feathers missing or blood on them nor had they ever.
I immediately took the Silkie out of the coop and set her up in the garage in a Rubber Maid bin with wood chips, water, and food. I quarantined the Barred Rocks in a separate enclosure within the run that I had previously made to introduce new chickens to the flock.
My questions are this:
- What should I do to treat the Silkie? She was resting comfortably on the edge of the Rubbermaid bin a few minutes ago when I checked on her in the garage.
- Should I give away the Barred Rocks?
- Do you think the Rocks are the reason the RI Red and the Sexlink are devoid of feathers on their rumps? There backs appear to be fine.
- Should I give away the Silkies as they might be too little to mix with full sized birds?
I recently ordered 6 Golden Comets from my local Agway store. They should be in around March 21st. The chicken expert there told me that they were very docile birds. I'm hoping he's right as this is no fun....
My poor Silkie:
You can see the tail feathers missing on the Red. I couldn't get the Sexlink to cooperate in facing away from me:
