Poor Peach!

[Sylverfly]

Ok so some of my other hens have started laying. I have a red sex link (Peach) who is very clumsy and always getting picked on by the other hens. Today she was trying to lay her 1st egg in a nest in the nest box when the other hens noticed. The other hens started shrieking and one hen muscled poor Peach in mid-egg-lay out of the nest and nearly out of the box. As soon as peach layed her egg this other hen pushed her out of the way and pecked a hole in the egg, didn’t try and eat it just pecked it and left. So what’s going on, there are lots of nest boxes but they all lay in the same one. No other hen has been subjected to this behavior, is this just because Peach is at the bottom of the pecking order or do I have a bigger problem in the making. Thanks for the input.

 

[skywatcher]

I don't spend much time in the chicken house however if i knew a hen destroyed an egg it would be out of the flock sold or butchered. try throwing out a bale of straw for the other hens to scratch in an occupy themselves.Penned chickens tend to pick on the lowest in the pecking order. If you can free range them they be alot happier & grow faster. Best wishes

 

[Sylverfly]

My chickens have a huge coop and a large run, which they can fly out of and free range all they want and many of them do, so I don’t think it’s a boredom thing. They always have something to do, I leave whole squash in the run so they have something to peck and keep busy with. And I have a pile of hay in the run so that bugs get under it and they can catch them, good protein and fun for the chickens. So… thanks for responding, I'll just have to keep my eye on the egg pecker I gues.