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I have a question, these Nankin hens are really worrying me, I got 7 yesterday and when we got home lastnight I put all of them in their own little run and when I went to feed this morning 2 of them had been pecked so much at the base of their tails that they're bleeding. These are all hens that were housed together when I got them. The 2 that are being pecked at alot are molting so I don't know if that has anything to do with it but I'm worried they're going to kill each other. It only seems to be those 2 that are bleeding, but they dish out as much as they recieve. What should I do, I don't have anywhere else to put them right now, I might be able to get my husband to build something this evening but I don't know if that'll help or it'll just cause the next weakest or smallest 1 in the group to get picked on instead. Should I leave them together and hope for the best or seperate them... I don't know what to do??
 
frmboyinthecity said:
SideWing, did I miss your final stats? It sounded like things were going fairly well, despite your big temperature fluctuations early on.
Click to expand...
Final update on my hatch last week. 12 hatched out of 14 good eggs. One did expire already. It pipped externally and then dried out so we helped it out. It had curled feet. It died a day later. So we have 11 new chicks on the ground. I need to get a good pic of the group. 6 yellow, 5 Marans chick color (one died) and 1 grey chick patterned like a Marans. Interesting. And a few of them have feathered shanks.

Of the eggs left I did candle them and one had internally pipped. Sad too, you could see the scratches on the inside of the egg where it failed to pip externally. I'm just not going to look or help anymore. I'm going full blue from now on. It sucks to have the kids see the curled footed chicks scream and then finally die.

I think the two had issues from the temp drops.
 
meganhundley said:
I have a question, these Nankin hens are really worrying me, I got 7 yesterday and when we got home lastnight I put all of them in their own little run and when I went to feed this morning 2 of them had been pecked so much at the base of their tails that they're bleeding. These are all hens that were housed together when I got them. The 2 that are being pecked at alot are molting so I don't know if that has anything to do with it but I'm worried they're going to kill each other. It only seems to be those 2 that are bleeding, but they dish out as much as they recieve. What should I do, I don't have anywhere else to put them right now, I might be able to get my husband to build something this evening but I don't know if that'll help or it'll just cause the next weakest or smallest 1 in the group to get picked on instead. Should I leave them together and hope for the best or seperate them... I don't know what to do??
Click to expand...

I can't speak for why its happening. Could be any number of reasons (stress from new place,enclosure or coop are too small, picking to reestablish pecking order...) but i would observe to see if it's,those two picking on each other or the others picking on those two. Then I would pull those two out and put them in a dog crate (2 dog crates if they were picking on each other).
Someone will help you brainstorm what it is. Might subside after molt?
 
Last edited:
sideWing said:
Final update on my hatch last week. 12 hatched out of 14 good eggs. One did expire already. It pipped externally and then dried out so we helped it out. It had curled feet. It died a day later. So we have 11 new chicks on the ground. I need to get a good pic of the group. 6 yellow, 5 Marans chick color (one died) and 1 grey chick patterned like a Marans. Interesting. And a few of them have feathered shanks.

Of the eggs left I did candle them and one had internally pipped. Sad too, you could see the scratches on the inside of the egg where it failed to pip externally. I'm just not going to look or help anymore. I'm going full blue from now on. It sucks to have the kids see the curled footed chicks scream and then finally die.

I think the two had issues from the temp drops.
Click to expand...
Congratulations! That's great with all the trouble you had with the temp.

I can understand going blue. On this next hatch, I plan to go blue as well.
 
NatureChica said:
I can't speak for why its happening. Could be any number of reasons (stress from new place,enclosure or coop are too small, picking to reestablish pecking order...) but i would observe to see if it's,those two picking on each other or the others picking on those two. Then I would pull those two out and put them in a dog crate (2 dog crates if they were picking on each other).
Someone will help you brainstorm what it is. Might subside after molt?
Click to expand...
K, I'll keep watching them. Those 2 seem to be the most aggressive of the bunch but now that they're bleeding all the others see the blood and peck at them in passing.
 

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