chickitychickity
Chirping
Last week I noticed my 2 top hens were beginning to peck on the other girls. I did not think anything of it because they are at the top of the pecking order. Three days ago I noticed the same 2 pecking another hen more aggressively. Two days ago I changed their mulch in the run. On that day I was able to see just how mean my top 2 girls are (because I was with them for 4 hours). They were pecking under the rooster’s tail feathers and were pecking my Speckled sussex’s wings. Yesterday I went down 3 or 4 times for visits, egg collecting, etc and saw that my rooster was getting his feather torn on his back. It did not look too bad so I just took note and left. This morning I go down to open them and everything looks like yesterday. Now 2 hours later I go down for the eggs and my poor Roo has a bald, bleeding patch. I separated him into his own spot as I had to leave for the day. What could be causing my hens to be so mean to the roo? Aren’t Roos supposed to be at the top? He’s very friendly.
I have 1 rooster and 5 hens. The Roo and one hen are EEs. The Tops hens are Barred Rock and a cross between White Leghorn and australorp. The other two hens are welsummer and Sussex. They are all from the same batch from last May. 3 hens are laying. The head 2 hens are part of those three. The other 2 girls are not laying yet. Their coop is 8’x5’. They have enough nesting boxes and roost space. They do fight over the top roost and refuse to use the other 3 roosts. Their run is two parts, one is 20’x10’ and the other is 6’x8’. They have both sections all day. They have water and layer pellets (16%) all day. They get a small handful of scratch in the morning and the occasional dried shrimp or mealworms. They have mulch that they dig in to keep them busy and a suet hanger.
I can get pictures later.
I have 1 rooster and 5 hens. The Roo and one hen are EEs. The Tops hens are Barred Rock and a cross between White Leghorn and australorp. The other two hens are welsummer and Sussex. They are all from the same batch from last May. 3 hens are laying. The head 2 hens are part of those three. The other 2 girls are not laying yet. Their coop is 8’x5’. They have enough nesting boxes and roost space. They do fight over the top roost and refuse to use the other 3 roosts. Their run is two parts, one is 20’x10’ and the other is 6’x8’. They have both sections all day. They have water and layer pellets (16%) all day. They get a small handful of scratch in the morning and the occasional dried shrimp or mealworms. They have mulch that they dig in to keep them busy and a suet hanger.
I can get pictures later.
