SOS! Cannibalism

[BigBlueHen53]

@Debbie292d gives great advice, but I'd like to add: stop all treats, snacks, table scraps and leftovers. The more of these things they eat, the less of the commercial feed they eat, and it's carefully balanced and scientifically formulated to provide all their nutritional needs. Their diet may simply be out of balance.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

All flock is all plant protein.

Protein is protein.

 

[Mother of Chaos]

Protein is protein.

Mmm, not necessarily. Amino acids are often in different proportions, right?

 

[rosemarythyme]

I'm questioning if it's the chickens at all - I've seen a cannibalized deceased chicken before so yes it does happen, but it is unusual. Any photos of your set up so we can see how secure it is? What types of possible predators do you have in your area?

 

[Perris]

I’ve never fed a different feed in 10 years

The bag may look the same but the contents can vary from batch to batch. All that's guaranteed is the AVERAGE nutritional profile. All sort of different ingredients can go in to reach that, and it's still an AVERAGE, so it will be not enough for half the birds and too much for the other half, since each bird has an individual and different metabolism, and none are usually exactly average - like people, How many of us are average height, average weight, average build?

So maybe the current bag of feed is seriously deficient in one or more respects - assuming that cannibalism is the cause of course.

2 of the chickens and the guinea are 10 years old. Do they get dementia? Please someone help me.

Old animals need more protein; that is true of people and chickens, and other species.

I cannot comment on guineas, about which I know nothing.

 

[LaFleche]

Protein is protein.

It is not.

The crude protein numbers on feed bags just provide information about the percentage added, but nothing about the digestability and uptake for the chicken metabolism.

Animal protein provides more valuable nutrients for chickens, is more easily digested and better utilized.
But of course, as animal protein is more valuable, it is also more expensive. And since there have been quite a lot of feed scandals in the past regarding the ingredients in chicken feed, most producers now prefer to err on the side of caution and only used plant based proteins in their chicken feed.

Chickens are omnivores and feeding them only plant protein is not natural.

 

[LaFleche]

And to really know what is going on with your flock I suggest to install one camera in the coop and another one outside supervising the run.

Very sorry you are experiencing this massacre @Graciebryant

 

[Graciebryant]

So sorry for your losses. I know how frustrating this must be! Try see if you can find an "all-flock" feed for them. That's usually 20% protein. The hens will need oyster shell in a separate feeder/dish as it's lower in calcium.

I know you said they have plenty of room, but just in case, I'm putting this here so you can check, as maybe it's not enough. Chickens need a minimum of 4 square feet of clear floor space in a coop and 15 square feet in a run. I'm sorry for sounding morbid here, but now with less chickens I'd think this should help if it had anything at all to due with overcrowding.

Any chance you could pick up a camera that works at night too? Just in case something else is doing this, plus, if it's a particular chicken or chickens doing it, you could pull them out and separate for a while and we'll try help you with the next move from there.

Do I need to switch the layer crumbles for all flock or add it into the feed routine? We did put a trail cam in/around the coop to try and see for sure if it’s a predator or the hens. Now that I know how much room they need I can say I probably didn’t have enough space for them but then that brings another question. When we first got chickens 10 yrs ago we got 5 guinea and 20 chickens. Again we did not know how much space they needed, but we had those birds in a slightly smaller space and we never had this problem. Did I just get lucky with that first round of birds? We do currently have plans to double the run space so I guess we’ll try to add onto the coop or build another one

 

[Graciebryant]

It is not.

The crude protein numbers on feed bags just provide information about the percentage added, but nothing about the digestability and uptake for the chicken metabolism.

Animal protein provides more valuable nutrients for chickens, is more easily digested and better utilized.
But of course, as animal protein is more valuable, it is also more expensive. And since there have been quite a lot of feed scandals in the past regarding the ingredients in chicken feed, most producers now prefer to err on the side of caution and only used plant based proteins in their chicken feed.

Chickens are omnivores and feeding them only plant protein is not natural.

How can I get around this? I would assume I shouldn’t feed them raw meat from the grocery store because even when feeding dogs a raw diet you shouldn’t use grocery store meat? Can I cook them some meat? What do I need to get them?

 

[Graciebryant]

I'm questioning if it's the chickens at all - I've seen a cannibalized deceased chicken before so yes it does happen, but it is unusual. Any photos of your set up so we can see how secure it is? What types of possible predators do you have in your area?

I’ve searched countless times and I also had my father who is a very experienced tracker, hunter, outdoorsman go look at it for an hour or so and the only thing he saw where something could possible get in was a tiny little hole he said a mink could possible fit through. We have fox, coyote, stray cats, coon, possum, all kinds of stuff. There isn’t a space for a fox to fit in, I know they can fit through anything their head can fit through. We did put a trial cam up to try and see something I don’t currently have any pictures but can possible take some later