Suddenly have a bird being singled out and are going to try the "chicken prison" technique before th

[Joshua-n-fam]

So about twelve weeks ago we got four 8 week old chickens. A week later we added a 9 week old and a 12 week old. They have lived together amicably ever since. Until... recently.

The Easter Egger started acting "weird" about two weeks ago. She used to be our fastest most inquisitive chicken, but she suddenly became lazy, sometimes staying in the coop for hours after the door opened. She started checking out the nesting boxes, trying both on for size and comfort (or so we imagined), and we were giddy that our fist egg might soon be coming from a very unlikely source (she's super underdeveloped. Smallest in our flock, almost no comb etc).

Fast forward two weeks to today, and we know a very different story. We have a very dominate bird named Trouble. We knew from day one she was going to be one to watch out for. She was always first out of the coop, unafraid of us coming and going, and gave us the evil eye on more than one occasion. And now she's leading a flockwide attack on our poor Easter Egger.

Yesterday we removed the Easter Egger and put her in a tiny cage with food and water. We were afraid that we'd misdiagnosed the situation and what we thought was her yearning to lay an egg was actually her hiding from Trouble and thus not eating or drinking enough, hence her small stature. So, we wanted to get her caught up in her belly without fear of being rushed. She was segregated physically (but in plain view) for a couple of hours and then we introduced her and things were good for a little while, but soon Trouble was back at it and once she zeros in on the EE the rest chime in.

So, today we removed the bully, and within fifteen minutes the entire flock was back to being friendly. We kept Trouble on lockdown for most of the day. When we returned her to the run things were really good for a couple of hours. But she's back at it again.

So, tomorrow we're going to try Chicken Prison. We have a large doghouse that is going to be her home for the next week. I'm going to attach the small cage as a "mini run" so she has access to sunlight, bugs, grass etc, but for the most part she's going to be on heavy lockdown and visual removal from the flock. We have our fingers crossed that this works, because if it doesn't, we're going to have to take her out of the flock permanently.

We are going to raise birds for meat one day, and we have rabbits we'll soon be breeding for meat, but to put all this time and effort into a layer only to have to turn it into a meal and then deal with the headache of replacing her and introducing a new bird to the flock (either an expensive older hen that's got it's own personality incompatible with the flocks, or a young bird surrounded by layers) ug... it's not a pleasant thought.

So, for now we'll give Chicken Prison a shot. I predict that she's going to throw a fit, be super loud the whole time, and revert back to her old ways once shes reintroduced. But I really hope that I'm wrong.

Fingers crossed!

 

[Judy]

Good luck!

I once raised a mixed up batch of chicks, intending to process most of the roos and keep the hens for eggs and chicks. When the day came, I included one awful hen, a hatchery Silver Laced Wyandotte. I had no doubt she was a hen by then (I was correct,) but I didn't want that attack hen in the flock, and I certainly didn't want her to reproduce.

I have never owned a huge number of chickens, I have 9 now, but I've never had another hen who was as aggressive as that girl was.

 

[Joshua-n-fam]

Started chicken prison Monday morning and ended it Friday night, adding her at night. By morning she was tormenting the easter egger like her old self.

So our minds are made up. Tomorrow we slaughter Trouble. We're still up in the air about replacing her with something else. I want to. My fiancee would rather stay at five and not trouble ourselves with integrating a newbie .

We're experimenting a lot though in prep for starting or own farm, so I think we'll add another, though possibly not right away.

I've never slaughtered an animal for food, so that will be a new experience for me, but my fiancee has, so it should be fairly easy. Right now we disagree about the skin. I think I should get the experience of plucking so we don't waste the skin. She'd rather skin it and avoid plucking altogether.

I'll update as we progress.

 

[Mrs. K]

I do agree with you decision to cull the bird. Flock harmony is very important. But before you add another layer to the flock, I think I would wait and see how it goes down.

Many times a flock of chicks will get along just fine, until they grow..... when they grow, they take up considerable more space, and space often times is the trigger to the bad behaviors. Yes you removed the bully, but you also removed a bigger bird, giving all else more space. A lack of space will trigger a bully response. Removing birds will often calm the flock down also.

What I am suggesting, is waiting a few weeks, and see the dynamics of the flock. What I myself have found, is that my set up will manage up to 12 hens, and really 10 hens is better. Any more than 12, and the stress in the flock become almost palpable.

If after waiting, you decide to add birds, I strongly recommend culling current flock back, and adding a group of birds to the remaining flock. It will go better than if you try to add a single bird to an established flock. If you plan an ongoing flock, one should removes some birds and add some birds each year, with the goal of having some pullets, some yearlings, and some two year old birds in your flock. The pullets will lay through the dark days of winter, the older birds will lay larger eggs.

Mrs K

 

[Joshua-n-fam]

Excellent advice heard and taken. Thank you very much =)

We are going to stick to five until we turn the shed into a coop. We've just gotten used to using the new shed as a... well, a shed, so it's going to be a rough transition lol.

As for Trouble, the now dearly-departed New Hampshire Red, we probably played a fairly significant role in her turning sour. We were warned immediately on this forum that our coop was too small by general standards, and that we may or may not experience problems, and if we did, then we should consider graduating to a larger coop.

We honestly didn't think the coop was a problem. Maybe it wasn't. But without a doubt I can say that in no way did a smaller coop help us any. I don't regret anything though. It was the best I could build at the time for the money we had. It was a great learning experience. I can resell it, probably at a profit, and it'll be a nice home to a smaller flock of, say, four chickens. Even now, with the roosting setup I have in there, they all crowd up. They have about 6-9 feet of roost space and almost always line up on three feet of it. If I had an automatic door opener, or woke up early, maybe this coop would have been fine for six birds.

So, as I alluded to earlier; the deed is done. This last Saturday I slaughtered my first chicken. It went pretty well, and it had the desired effect. The remaining flock is much calmer and quieter, we're a little closer to raising meat rabbits (because of the inevitable conclusion of such an act), and as always, we learned a bunch and will get better at processing our own meat in the future.

So, this concludes this problem. Or, you could say, we no longer have any Trouble with our flock. =P

 

[BatonRougeChick]

Glad to hear things are fine now. How did you learn to slaughter the chicken and was it harder or easier than you expected? I'm not sure I can do it, mostly because I'm afraid of the bird being in pain from my inexperience, but one day will think about raising chickens for meat. For now we're starting out with just eggs.

 

[Joshua-n-fam]

How? Youtube and my fiancees instruction from her experience. Wasnt as bad as youd think. I cut its head off so its suffering was slight if existant. As soon as its dead then its just meat with an annoying wrapper around it. Chickens are crazy psychologically because they move a lot and very powerfully. Its hard to not imagine that they are going through hell. But you have to trust the science and rest assured thats its all automatic response and not reactive.

Anyway, even if they suffer its only briefly. Humans are omnivores and its near impossible to survive for very long without meat. These days its possible. Tens of thousands of vegans do it every day, but they do so in spite of the bodies needs, not in compliment to it.

Gotta head off to bed. Will continue this later. Night!

 

[cybrchick]

Did you end up plucking or skinning it?

 

[Joshua-n-fam]

Plucking, but we messed up with the hot water and ruined the skin so that transformed into skinning of a sorts lol

 

[cybrchick]

Lol! Thats my worry when we kill one. I remember plucking as a kid and it was tedious. Thinking of skinning instead.