Runny Chicken Poop just started?

[MckinneyTXBYC]

We have 8 hens 4 being red stars and 4 sussex and they just started to have runny chicken poop today.
Just got 2 new hens 1 month older than they are.
One of the new hens keeps pecking all my original 8 i have had since a week or 2 old.
I am thinking maybe the new hen pecking them is stressing them out some what.
Also i put 2 feeders and 2 water things in the coop and the pecking hen always runs them off i notice.
So tonight we decided to locked up the new 2 hens for a week in a dog kennel to see how it goes.
Hope someone can help me decide what is wrong i will attach 2 images.
Thanks

 

[ace6175]

I hope someone who knows a lot about this posts something soon. I am having the same problem with my hens.

 

[sharol]

How old are the younger chicks/hens? Are they all about the same size?

Did you isolate the new hens for a while (2-4 weeks) before integrating them? They could have brought something with them if you didn't. I think the separation is a good idea to deal with the pecking order thing.

 

[MckinneyTXBYC]

That is the bad thing we did, we got the news this past weekend and let them in the coop with the other 8 hens.
Our 8 hens are nearly 5 months old and the 2 new hens are nearly 6 months old.
We put the 2 new hens in a large dog kennel today after they saw this.
Also removed them because the one is pecking the 8 hens we already had all the time.
I am wondering if stress is causing this or the bad Texas heat we just started having.

 

[sharol]

It could be the heat. During the heat wave last summer, my girls all had watery poop.

That is the bad thing we did, we got the news this past weekend and let them in the coop with the other 8 hens.
Our 8 hens are nearly 5 months old and the 2 new hens are nearly 6 months old.
We put the 2 new hens in a large dog kennel today after they saw this.
Also removed them because the one is pecking the 8 hens we already had all the time.
I am wondering if stress is causing this or the bad Texas heat we just started having.

 

[MckinneyTXBYC]

Well today we have a very rainy day here in the 70's and 80's temp.
Most days here are in the 90s and very warm here in North Texas.
Just all of sudden tonight when were putting them up into the coop the poop looked like this.
I agree with you about the heat anyone else have any other ideas?
Thanks

 

[sharol]

You know, there was probably a good deal of stress with the introduction of the new girls to the old ones. Maybe patience would be a virtue here.

I added 5 new girls to my existing flock of 6 last summer. The new chicks were raised here from day olds, so the situation isn't the same, but if you could let them get to know each other through a layer of wire for a while it might help.

I let my 11 free range separately and kept them in separate quarters for several weeks until the young birds got almost full sized (4 months or so) and then let them out of their respective housing to free range together for several days before penning them together. There weren't any real problems. When I added a roo (Butch the EE) this spring, I did the same thing. I kept him in a separate tractor coop and let everyone circle around him and get acquainted through the wire for a while after his quarantine. Again, no serious problems, though there was some chest bumping and wing slapping going on.

Good luck with your girls. I'm hoping the runny poop is just from the hot weather (and it probably is).

 

[MckinneyTXBYC]

Notice today it looks like the poop is getting back to being more solid.
I guess since i moved out the 2 bad hens my 8 hens are way happier.
Last 2 days have been a bit cooler but not too much cooler.
I will post more if this happens again.
Thanks