What to do with beaten up frizzle hens for winter!!!

[farmgirllvo]

I have two frizzle hens who have gotten beaten up from the rosters mating with them, this will be their first winter without buddies to protect them and I am worried about them altogether in a coop all winter. I have 30 chickens total, 4 rosters all whom know pecking order and don't fight, they are good to the other hens but the rosters and the 3 oldest hens pick on my poor frizzles. Do I find a new home for them? Advice?

 

[farmgirllvo]

 

[azygous]

Chickens do indeed select those chickens for bullying who have a different appearance from the majority. This may be the case in your flock - frizzles being targeted because of their differences.

This situation is usually made worse than it should be by inadequate space and means for the bullied to find safe places such as higher perches and partitions.

If you don't have a minimum of ten square feet per chicken, then you may need to address the space issue. If your frizzles are old enough, they may soon be molting, which will restore their feathers. I would see about creating some safe space for them and perhaps enlarging the run.

You may even be able to desensitize the flock to the unique appearance of the frizzles by fashioning "feather dusters" out of discarded frizzle feathers and hanging them around the run to make it seem as if there are more frizzles than there actually are. Giving the flock a multiple of whatever it is they are focusing on has worked for me when it comes to addressing this issue. Chickens seem to quickly lose interest when they see a lot of a certain thing.

 

[bobbi-j]

How many chickens do you have in what size coop and run (feet by feet, not "big enough" or "pretty big") How many roosters to hens?

In my opinion, if all the Frizzles you have look like the one pictured, you really should separate them or rehome them.

 

[farmgirllvo]

I have three 4+ year old hens
Two 1.5 year old hens and one roster
Two non beaten up frizzles that are a few months old (hens)
20 teenager hens and three rosters that age
And than two 2 year old frizzles who keep getting beaten up from mating

 

[bobbi-j]

And how are they being housed? All in one coop (how big)? In a coop with run? Free ranged? Separate coops?

And I'm not sure what you mean by getting "beaten up". Is it just that they're barebacked, or are the roosters aggressively pecking at them? Have you seen them being beaten up? Are you sure they're not molting? I'm not seeing any blood in the picture you posted.

 

[farmgirllvo]

They all sleep in a coop
I'll post measurements in a minute
But they are free range all day
When they mate with her that pull her feathers out, I think she might be molting now but she still looked like that a few months ago and she always runs from the rosters, all but by youngest roster and try chase her. Also when she runs by the older hens will peck her(I am butchering two or three of the oldest hens this fall )

 

[farmgirllvo]

They will have just over 2 sq' per bird in the enclosed coop for winter
Plus they will have a run when I open it, the run is quite small tho

 

[bobbi-j]

But how much room do they all have now?

You might want to rethink your coop space. Recommended MINIMUM space is 4 sq' per bird in the coop, and 10' for run space. Over crowding can be the source of all kinds of bad habits, feather picking and cannibalism to name a couple. I'm on my phone and I'm technoligally challenged, so I don't know how to post a link, but I would recommend you go to the Learning Center at the top of the page and go to the section on housing your chickens. Ridgerunner has a good article on how much room chickens should have.

 

[kysilkies]

We had same problem making our Polizzles! Solution, apron! Worked perfectly! We also decided to let them go broody as it would be a chance to keep apron off.

There have still been times, we've just had to separate them for a period of time. Even with bevvy of hens available, the Roo's seem to favor them. Lol