Please help! I am completely overwhelmed.

[Denninmi]

You need to put "pinless peepers" on them. It ends all pecking problems. Very easy to do, and the birds seem to not even notice them. Works great for feather picking/plucking chickens.

http://www.eggcartons.com/Pinless-Peepers/productinfo/PINLESS-P/

 

[Judy]

The first thing I would do is enlarge the run if you can, and if at all possible, add some hiding places and things like roosts and boxes, as others have suggested. Next, it is normal for chickens to squabble a bit when deciding who gets to sleep where, and it is normal for them to compete for the highest roost. If possible, I would make all the roosts the same height. If your nest boxes take up any of the floor space in the coop, the next thing I would do is raise them enough so they have that much more floor space to walk in. Your coop is small, yes, but unless they spend much of their day in there, I am not sure that is your biggest problem. If they actually have the full 2.7 sq ft available to walk in, that is. If food and water are in the coop, perhaps you could set up a small protected area in the pen for them to free up some more floor space. A "covered front porch" might help, too; depends on the setup, of course.

Another thought -- if you live where winters are bad enough that they stay indoors some days, this can really make them feel crowded.

When you have one bully, or one who is worse than the others, sometimes you can solve the problem by putting the bully in "chicken jail" for several days or a week. When they rejoin the flock they are at the lowest point in the pecking order. You might have to buy a dog cage or the like to do this. I've read it's best if they can see each other during this time.

Actually, if your Wyandottes are as bad as mine were, they may be the biggest problem. It may be that your whole problem would be solved by rehoming them. I know you don't really want to do this, though.

Good luck!

 

[Ole rooster]

I don't know that's it's related but on the protein intake that is I think important to control in any animal. I used to raise Arabian horses and remember we had to be careful of the protein intake. I used to get a half load of Alfalfa hay to feed ours. We would let them out during the day and in their stalls at night. We had two that stayed in and was exercised daily. The thing that had to be watched was the amount of alfalfa they were fed. Arabians are a hot blooded horse and too much protein and they were climbing the wall. I would think food and protein intakes would be related to all animals. If one breed of chickens are more aggressive than another it just surely has to be the same.

But these chickens are stressed and overcrowded along with the protein intake. Just my opinion.

Sound like a knowitall don't I?

p

 

[nwfl]

I like a calm layer flock. Years ago I had some silver laced wyandottes and those beauties ended up in a delicious soup due to being aggressive to my other birds. I have a main flock of buff orps, cornishs, welsumers, and americauanas. Over the years I have had only two disagreable birds of those breeds and they became meals. I feed treats of veggies, extra greens, grass, weeds, flock blocks. Currently I have one white rock, one sl wyandotte, one easter egger that have been pushing their luck, but have not drawn blood yet. But some birds are just mean. Rehoming the aggressive girls might be your best solution.

 

[TreeHugger]

Sorry you are having issues & everybody has good suggestions. I know you don't want to do it, but I would rehome your trouble makers, it's the easy way out so to speak but it will save yourself and the other birds a lot of stress. Personally I had an issue a few years back with a RIR hen that I had raised from a chick. She was a horrible bully and became an egg-eater. I never could figure out where I went wrong with her. I ended up switching all of my birds to high protein game bird crumbles, added extra treats etc. Then I ended up isolating her from the flock for a while to try to curb her bullying. Literally as soon as I put her back in with the flock she ran over and tried to pull one of my silkies off the nest by her head feathers to get at her eggs. I ended up culling her and I was not happy about it.

 

[Pharm Girl]

Quote:
Just when you think you've seen it all! LOL.

 

[andie01]

Thanks so much for all of the wonderful suggestions. I went and bought two flock blocks last week. I put one in the main pen with the 4 Buff Orpingtons, 4 Wyandottes, and 1 Americauna. Of course I had to add one to the temporary pen that the 3 Americaunas that had been bullied are in. I give all of the chickens treats a couple of times a day. They get fresh fruits and veggies, leftover meat, scratch, black oil sunflower seeds, grass and weeds to scratch and peck that my son and I pull up from the yard. I've added a few things for them to hop onto.

Unfortunately, the pen can't be added onto. My poor husband really wasn't planning on having to build anything more to accommodate these chickens. I'm sure he'll come around though. He's already talking about adding more chickens to our existing ones next year if he builds a large enough second coop. It's just getting him going on building the second coop.

To answer someone's earlier question, all of our chickens were purchased as chicks the same day. They had always been in the coop and run together until this pecking started. When I removed the three Americaunas the first time, I added them back to the main coop after having them separated for a week and added them back at night when the others were roosting. They were fine at first, but by the second day the one Americauna was in really bad shape so I decided that I would separate her with the other two that had gotten bullied the first time before the other two got pecked at again.

What height do you recommend having the roosting bar at? How high should the nesting boxes be?

Thanks so much for all the help! I'm not wanting to give up on raising chickens.

 

[andie01]

Quote:
Once we get the new coop built, I'm planning on keeping the troublemakers in the original coop. If it takes too much longer for my husband to come up with a design, I may have to find a new home for the troublemakers. I'm really hoping that we'll get the new coop built soon.

 

[tdgill]

how's the coop coming along? ;-) we are procrastinators here. Its impossible to get a project started and finished it seems! in the meantime, I do alot of fussing about rearranging trying new things short of building anything elaborate. I have lots of free ranging though and lots of hiding places (but I still have one chicken thats determinded to be a house chicken!)

 

[ChickInDelight]

I know nothing of chickens - I am just learning. I do, however, recommend as much outdoor time as possible in an interesting area. Hang that cabbage, place potted plants inside, throw some balls or toys in there, change up their diet.

I think everyone is right. Consider diet factors. This looks like stress / boredom. I look at this pecking to be akin to self-mutilation.

I have 4 of chickens of 3 diffferent breeds the same age as yours. They sleep in a hutch I was told is WAY to small for them, but they huddle together. They sleep in less than half of the room provided. They also go in willingly every night at sunset.

They also flock together all day because they free-range. They have a ton of interesting things happening, and must use natural flocking mechanisms to stay safe. I have never seen any pecking. I could not tell you which is the top hen.

Have fun with them. Wear them out. Provide more amusement. Something new in the run every day, even if it is just a pile of dirt, is more stimulating than perpetual sameness.