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CSAchook said:
Hello you beautiful squatchers you!!!!! I hope everyone one is having a good weekend.

Cappy so very sorry to hear you are going through this kind of medical scare. Fingers and toes are crossed, prayers said, good Karma sent. :hugs Apryl this goes for you and your giant human too. :hugs

Also, to everyone (and man it really seems like it is EVERYONE) with new little lives to treasure (puppy, chickie, bunny etc) thank you for all the photo sharing! It always brightens my day. :love

And now my friends I need your advice. In the last month or so I have started to notice some aggression issues in my little flock. To recap, I have six hens: 3 LF cochins, 1 Speckled Sussex, 2 ISA browns. The cochins and SS are 11 months old and the ISAs are about a year and a half old. They have been living together as one flock since the end of summer (2017).

Problems:
-My white cochin is bullying my barred cochin.
-My ISAs are bullying my barred cochin.
-One ISA (Ana) is pulling feathers from all five other flock members.

The bullying is happen both during free range time and in the coop so I don't think it is purely a space issue.

The barred cochin is currently in her own little adjoining coop (see but no touch) while she puts some healthy weight back on. But she cannot stay there forever and it does nothing to stop the feather issues happening in the main flock.

Thoughts? Suggestions? I know cutting down to just the three nice hens would probably fix this...but it would also kill egg production, so I am keeping that option as a last resort. Also, is it ok to rehome bullies? Would they maybe do better in another flock? Maybe one with a rooster?

Any advice welcome! I always prefer asking you all—my friends—whenever I need advice. And there, I even threw in some em dashes as a bribe :D
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2 questions from me:
1. What exactly do you feed your flock and
2. What size if your chicken house?
 
KikisGirls said:
2 questions from me:
1. What exactly do you feed your flock and
2. What size if your chicken house?
Click to expand...

Hen house is 6ft x 6ft with an attached run that is 8ft wide x 10 ft long x 8 ft high.

I switched their feed about 1.5 weeks ago (after I realized how bad things were).
Previously they were eating 16% protein grower/starter crumbles from a local mill. Now they are eating 18% protein layer pellets. New food is Nutrena brand Hearty Hen. It was the only pellet I could find locally that had more than 16% protein.

They do get treats but not every day. When they do get treats it is a small amount of one or more of the following: mixed grains, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, meal worms, alfalfa, fruit, or veggie scraps. The victim is getting a little spoonful of canned fish every other day while she is recovering.
 
Smuvers Farm said:
AMEN on that!!! Sheesh! Can't tell you how many projects I've done that required a certain sized board and that one board is $15?!?!? Rilly?!?!?!?

G'morning all!!
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I spent almost 23,000 at Home Depot last year. No worries I wrote it all off on my taxes :D
 
Hello guys!

I disappeared to do some construction.

My FIL said that the last several nights, he has had to pull a screaming buff out of the nest boxes and put her in the mobile coop. I checked on her today and it is the same buff that raised my BSL Cochin/Dominique chicks this past fall. It is almost exactly 6 months since she last went broody. I wanted to move her into an isolation pen, but we have been using one of the 5x5's so the 11 week old chicks can eat in peace in the mornings and have predator protection at night and the other 5X5 as an isolation unit for the Chocolate Orpingtons.

So I started building this. It is a 6x6 pen that I will divide down the middle into two broody pens. This will be for housing hens that are setting on their eggs or have chicks under a week old. After that, I'll move them to the 5x5 in the run. The lids will swing down from the peak pole.
C5C3B713-BBEB-4E88-903C-EBEA6A1A13BB.jpeg

But, as you can see, we didn't finish. So, tonight, we’ll start transitioning the older chicks to sleeping in the mobile coop and we gave their 5x5 to the semi broody hen. She wasn’t happy about the move, but then I remembered. She doesn’t like fake eggs. She only went broody when I put real eggs under her. So I put some eggs we don’t care about under her and I’ll see if she sits well for a day or two. If she does, I’ll move the chocolate Orp eggs I set on Monday under her and I’ll have enough room in the incubators to not overflow the brinsea. This pic was after I first moved her.
IMG_7016.JPG
 
FlyingNunFarm said:
@CSAchook maybe reshuffle everyone. Separate them into smaller groups and reintroduce. Even if you have to do that several times in short order I wonder if it would reset the pecking order.
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I am definitely willing to try some musical coop action (so to speak) BUT the only other housing I have is my itty bitty hospital coop. I can only put two birds in there and I have three problem girls. So I was thinking maybe I should rehome someone right away? Then try to improve the dynamics of the rest??? But I cannot decide who to get rid of. Should I rehome

A. The white cochin. She is single mindedly focused on the death of the barred cochin but nice to everyone else. She doesn't have much personality so I wouldn't miss her much.

B. Ana the ISA brown. She is causing problems with everyone by pulling feathers... but she also is like a little puppy around me and I love her. :hit

:barnie:barnie:barnie So many options and I don't know what to do. But that is why I appreciate all the help :) Thank you friends!
 
KikisGirls said:
The Barred Cochin is the one that is getting picked on the most right?
Click to expand...

Everyone one is losing feathers (except the feather puller herself!) but as far as I know, the barred cochin (Bubbles) is the only one experiencing more severe bullying like getting run off of feed or water, not being allowed to dust bath, getting chased and pecked even during free range time when they have half an acre to roam.
 
CSAchook said:
Everyone one is losing feathers (except the feather puller herself!) but as far as I know, the barred cochin (Bubbles) is the only one experiencing more severe bullying like getting run off of feed or water, not being allowed to dust bath, getting chased and pecked even during free range time when they have half an acre to roam.
Click to expand...

I tend to count this as spring crazies.
I have rehomed problem birds. Sometimes it fixes things, sometimes another rises up to start being a tater.
It sounds like you have 2 that are worse then the rest.
The white Cochin and the ISA.

Your coop and run seem more than enough size wise.

You said your trying to put weight on your barred...... If the white is sensing something wrong with her that could be why she's beating her up.

Tough flock........

I would try and get some weight back on your barred and see how that goes. Its going to take some time to beef her up. Will your hospital coop hold 2 birds? I would put the SS in with her since she seems mellow enough.

As to the mean ISA.... She may straighten up with the barred and SS in the other coop. If not I am not sure what can be done.

Add hiding spots to the run maybe?
 

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