One of my chickens, River,(barred rock), has been grabbing and biting and pecking the combs of the the hens that have bigger combs, she is about 23 weeks and her comb is still very small, she is hurting the other chickens, what should I do?
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That sounds too aggressive for pecking order behavior. I'd recommend putting her in a separate cage within sight of the rest of the flock. Keep her there for a week or two. When you release her she will probably have to re-establish her place in the flock, hopefully not at the top as head bully.
Also, make sure the coop and run have enough room for the number of chickens that you have. Tight quarters and a lack of escape cover or hiding places in the coop and run can increase the odds of conflict within the flock.
It's also possible that you just have a chicken that will never play nice with others. Of all the breeds I've had, this has only been an issue with hatchery barred rocks, two of which I culled because they were terrorizing their flock mates.
Same is happening with my barred rocks except they are 7 weeks old and pull feathers from the other females its only 4 of them and 3 of them are pulling the feathers none of the other breeds are doing it and are the same age makes me want to get rid of them and use the space for buff Orpingtons.
Any suggestions
There are 14 young ones coop is about 30 feet long and 20 feet wide they eat grower feed so I don't think protein is a problem they get it in multiple trays in case the older birds don't allow them to eat at a certain one (there are 7 adult ones ) i thonk there are just mean I've heard of barred rocks being a bit aggressiveSpace and diet.
How many birds, ages genders?
How much space, in coop and run, in feet by feet?
What and how exactly are you feeding?
Cayenne pepper won't 'burn' their mouths...but might their eyes, proceed with caution.