Please help, don't know if I need to get rid of this bully chicken

[Concordmommy]

Jackie is causing injury by pecking, and she's just such a huge bully. Should I get rid of her? I've tried everything--cabbage, pine tar on the victim's butts, extra protein, etc. She just won't quit it. I isolated her and she's going crazy in her little pen right now by herself. But I can't have her injuring everyone.

What should I do? craigslist her?

 

[chickenzoo]

Please tell us how big of a space she is in. Do they get to free range. How old is she, when did it start. Many things can cause this. You can also clip down some of the top beak to make it hard to peck, but please tell us more so we can advise you better.

 

[rachiegirl]

No matter her complaining, I would leave her separated for at least a few days, then reintroduce her and see what happens. Hopefully this will knock her to the bottom of the pecking order and she will behave herself. If not, it would probably be better for everyone else if she found a new home.

 

[Concordmommy]

She's an astralorp, almost 26 weeks old, just started laying a couple of weeks ago. No free ranging (hawks and stray cats), 50sf run space with five birds, coop is a bit on the snug side (about 15sf), but they are hardly ever in there except to lay and sleep at night. I just started feeding them layena a couple of weeks ago, and this behavior has been going on for about a week or so. I'm wondering if the lower protein content (they were on flockraiser) may be contributing. I give them black oil sunflower seeds daily in addition to their feed. Also veggies and fruits and some scratch occasionally.

 

[chickenzoo]

Try the Flock raiser again if you could. She might be missing something....... You said 50sgft for 5 birds, so thats a 10x5 run. That might be too small for them. An Astralourp can get pretty big. You could try a Flock Block. It is a bunch of pressed seeds and stuff made into a hard block. They have to work at it to get the seeds....... If possible I'd give her some free range time when you can.