Pinless Peeper- Smaller Size???

[josh117]

I am trying to get my Silver-Laced Wyandotte, Prudence, and two other hens to be friendly to my new girls and hopefully integrate them, but the older hens keep pecking and terrorizing the new girls. I decided to turn to the Pinless Peepers. They fit on my other two hens, but not on Prudence. She can easily shake it off or scratch the Pinless Peeper off with her foot, and even damaging her beak won't deter her. I was wondering if there was a smaller size or something that may work? I looked around and didn't find anything, was just hoping someone knew tips or had similar experiences and knew what to do.

 

[azygous]

Nope. You're out of luck with peepers for Prudence. An alternative is to level the playing field with extra perches and platforms for the younger chickens to escape to. It's normal they are afraid of Prudence, and their fear encourages her. Give them some escapes and things will mellow out.

 

[aart]

Pinless peepers are usually a last resort, IMO.
What else have you done to integrate?
Info(dimensions and pics) on size of coop and run along with numbers and ages of birds might help garner some other solutions.

 

[josh117]

The coop is 4'x4', and the run is 4'x14'. Three 2.5 year olds, and two 6 month old hens. The run has a few roosts where the younger hens will "hide", but as soon as they hop down for a drink, they are punished.
For the past 4 months, the two younger hens have lived in a separate coop that I attached to the existing run. The two groups were only separated by some chicken wire, so they could get used to each other (as is commonly recommended). 3-4 times per week we allow them to free-range the backyard together. During these periods, the younger ones would be harassed, but could easily escape. However, in the run or coop, escape is not possible.

 

[azygous]

With such a small run configured so physically narrow, your youngsters are fish in a barrel and easy pickings.

With an expansion of your flock should come an expansion of your run.

 

[aart]

For the past 4 months, the two younger hens have lived in a separate coop that I attached to the existing run. The two groups were only separated by some chicken wire, so they could get used to each other (as is commonly recommended).

4 months is a long time...how old is each group?
Swap them out, put the olders in the youngsters space..and let the youngsters be in the main space. After a week or so try adding one of the olders back in with the youngsters.
Shake up their territories.

 

[rosemarythyme]

With such a small run configured so physically narrow, your youngsters are fish in a barrel and easy pickings.

Just to expand on this, when a bird wants to chase another bird it'll go until either the chased bird gets a certain distance away, or something breaks up their line of sight.

4' is probably too close for a chick to scoot by the older bird without "offending" the older bird, so it gets chased. And because the run is so narrow, it'll be hard to add enough junk to the run to provide breaks in line of sight.

If you can expand the run, you definitely want to prioritize going wider rather than longer. If possible, I'd double the width, then proceed to add obstacles so the younger birds have a way to hide if chased.