The pen or not the pen that is the question!

[Giles]

I am pretty new to chickens, I raised five beautiful Barred Plymouth Rocks last year and installed them in a great coop and animal proof 12 x 14' run. We have had a tough winter and in early January I noticed that my chickens were getting board and were pecking each others bums! I went to a feed store an got some peck stop and I painted the pecked areas, but they seemed to let it wear off and then resumed a couple of days later!

Two were particularly bad so I dashed to the workshop and built a mini coop that I installed in my greenhouse. I then extracted the two with the hope that they would grow back their feathers and be ready to join the others in a month or so. Unfortunately this did not happen as the two continued to peck each other! Frustrated I integrated them back to the other three in the yard, where upon WW3 started as they sorted out who is the boss. More feathers were lost and all now have bare bums and the worst two peckers have bald heads too! I then thought that they must still be bored so I added toys, took away the food hopper and fed them on the ground, made a better dusting area and hung a cabbage to peck at. Still more pecking so I went to the next level. I have a large fenced back garden and I live in the country so I let them go more free range. All was good, no pecking and happy chickens. On the second day I was told by my neighbour that a Raccoon was in my yard and was eyeying up the chickens during the later afternoon. I put the chickens back in, but the pecking is still an issue.

I also have five more chicks on the way that are now two weeks old and I want to stamp out this pecking before I introduce them to the flock.

It seems I have some options,
1. get rid of the peckers
2. let them all out and hope they don't get eaten by the raccoon
3. build a bigger run
4. let the peckers out during the day and see if they get eaten
5. catch the raccoon and hope that more don't turn up
6. let them continue pecking each other and see how they fair.

What do I do?

 

[JackE]

I would suggest electrified poultry net. I used to free range here. Got away with it for almost a full year, then the fox discovered the flock. After a couple of devastating daytime attacks, I bought the netting. Started out with 300', liked it so much, I bought 350' more. That has been the answer for me. The chickens get plenty of room to roam around, and they are safe.

 

[Giles]

Well here is the update and I am pleased to say its all good news!

So we kept on with letting the hens out during the day and I did not try to trap the Racoon. Some good advice was that if the Racoon was not bothering the hens then leave it alone, they are territorial and would keep other Racoons from coming into their area. I went to my local farm store to order one chick and when they asked, "only one?" I told them I wanted a rooster. As it turned out one of the guys working there had a flock with two roosters and wanted to get rid of one. After a phone call it turned out that the rooster was a Barred Plymouth Rock like all my hens, so I could not be happier. He was a healthy one year old and was raised well and did not appear to be aggressive. I took him home and quarantined him for a few days, then introduced him to the hens. I put him in our pool enclosure for the day to give a barrier so that they all could have a look at each other first. Later on in the day I went to check to find that he had got out and was strutting around with his new harem! They had scrapped a little, but no feathers were lost, just a lot of flapping and squarking. That night the Rooster did not want to go in the hen house so I waited until after dark and put him up on the roost. Next morning he was a little timid, but went out with the girls and all has been fine since. He does a good job keeping an eye out for any predators, and fingers crossed, everything has stayed away. My hens are happier than ever and loving the freedom of the entire 1.5 acre yard. I did do a bit of fencing to secure any holes. Best of all though is 'no pecking'! The hens have so much more room that they seem to keep out of each others way. The smaller ones, that were the worst pecked, follow the rooster around all day as he seems to be a bit of a bodyguard.

My five new chicks are now 9 weeks old and I have been taking them out into a run that I made for them to mature in. I will keep moving them in and out each morning and evening until I get them used to the cooler weather. They are growing like crazy and love running about on the grass, the rooster and the hens seem to be very interested in the chicks and by the time I am ready to have them roosting I am sure they will be integrated.

This process has taken so many hours of thinking and I REALLY appreciated your helpful advice. Keeping chickens happy is quite a challenge and I feel I have learnt a lot over the last month! On an interesting note the eggs seem to taste a bit different, probably due to the extra protein in their diet. They run to the grass when I let them out in the morning in a desperate dash to catch the worms that have surfaced during the night.