Who is the BULLY???

[Finny303]

Hi we have 8 chickens, just over one year old. We live in New England and it was a harsh winter. Chickens were getting pecked at pretty badly. 5/8 of them have lost thier feathers in the back and looks pretty raw. This has been happening since winter!! I am sick of this. We have 5 white chickens, 2 tan, on one dark brown. I am pretty sure that the few white ones that have not lost their feather are the bullys. I want to get rid of them and keep the ones that are no bullies. Not sure how to do so. They have plenty of room in their two story coup and in the day I let them roam around the yard ALL day till night comes and they wander back home. Right now we have a brooder and we took some eggs from a friend who has a rooster hoping they will hatch. The brooder is Mother Hen she is tan and fat and she is BEAUTIFUL and you bet your but that NO chicken messes with her as she is sitting ALL day long and gets very upset if disturbed. My plan would be to get rid of the bullies and keep Mother Hen, the other tan one and the dark brown one since I am almost 100% sure they do not peck. So how do I go about this? They are all GREAT egg layers. We don't eat our chickens. Where would I bring the bullies??

 

[donrae]

Put an ad on Craigslist or similar for the birds you want to sell.

 

[aart]

Hi we have 8 chickens, just over one year old. We live in New England and it was a harsh winter. Chickens were getting pecked at pretty badly. 5/8 of them have lost thier feathers in the back and looks pretty raw. This has been happening since winter!! I am sick of this. We have 5 white chickens, 2 tan, on one dark brown. I am pretty sure that the few white ones that have not lost their feather are the bullys. I want to get rid of them and keep the ones that are no bullies. Not sure how to do so. They have plenty of room in their two story coup and in the day I let them roam around the yard ALL day till night comes and they wander back home. Right now we have a brooder and we took some eggs from a friend who has a rooster hoping they will hatch. The brooder is Mother Hen she is tan and fat and she is BEAUTIFUL and you bet your but that NO chicken messes with her as she is sitting ALL day long and gets very upset if disturbed. My plan would be to get rid of the bullies and keep Mother Hen, the other tan one and the dark brown one since I am almost 100% sure they do not peck. So how do I go about this? They are all GREAT egg layers. We don't eat our chickens. Where would I bring the bullies??

What are the dimensions of your coop(feet by feet)...pics would help too.
Where is your broody sitting the eggs?
What is your climate?

 

[Finny303]

Hi thanks for the reply.
Mother Hen is in the nesting box in the coup sitting in two eggs.
They have plenty of room. My husband built the outdoor coup and he did more than enough than was suggested. Also they roam outside in the yard all day till night and free range then. The coup is also enough for 8 chickens. Sorry I cannot tell you the dimensions as I am not home right now. All I know is that it is plenty of room for them.
Climate is seasonal but now is summer in New Enlgand and it has been hot but the birds have plenty of shade since we have woods in the back yard and grass in the front yard with sun. I just want a healthy flock with no bullies. My friend has 20 chickens and none of them get pecked at like our birds do. They do live on a farm though.

 

[Mrs. K]

The major cause of pecking is not enough room, and no hide outs where birds can get away from each other. And there needs to be enough space day and night. So even if they do free range all day, if they are cramped on the roost at night, that can be where the problem is, and why you are not seeing who is guilty.

Often times people are sold coops or told that this coop will hold this many chickens. Some flocks may do fine in that space, and some flocks may not. I highly recommend you measure the roost. Birds have a VERY strong urge to roost, and will put up with pecking in order to do so. If they have to roost too close to the bully, they loose feathers.

Your flock sounds tense. Try reducing your count by 3 birds, wait two weeks and see how the flock acts, if the flock calms down, then that is a better number for your set up. More than likely it does not matter which birds you pull out.

Bullies do not bully because they are just plain mean, (most of the time) but rather because they are stressed. Reduce the stress, and often times the bullying goes away.

It has often been recommended here to up your protein, and a good protein diet is important, in my opinion, most stress and strife in a flock comes from space. It can also be very helpful if your run has roosts, and hideouts, but it does not sound like your birds are confined to a run.

Mrs K

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

The major cause of pecking is not enough room, and no hide outs where birds can get away from each other. And there needs to be enough space day and night. So even if they do free range all day, if they are cramped on the roost at night, that can be where the problem is, and why you are not seeing who is guilty.

Often times people are sold coops or told that this coop will hold this many chickens. Some flocks may do fine in that space, and some flocks may not. I highly recommend you measure the roost. Birds have a VERY strong urge to roost, and will put up with pecking in order to do so. If they have to roost too close to the bully, they loose feathers.

Your flock sounds tense. Try reducing your count by 3 birds, wait two weeks and see how the flock acts, if the flock calms down, then that is a better number for your set up. More than likely it does not matter which birds you pull out.

Bullies do not bully because they are just plain mean, (most of the time) but rather because they are stressed. Reduce the stress, and often times the bullying goes away.

It has often been recommended here to up your protein, and a good protein diet is important, in my opinion, most stress and strife in a flock comes from space. It can also be very helpful if your run has roosts, and hideouts, but it does not sound like your birds are confined to a run.

Mrs K

X 2 on all counts! The fact of the matter is that when you are seeing issues such as your flock is exhibiting it doesn't really matter whether you have allowed 2 square feet per bird or 20 square feet per bird, the birds are displaying behavior that indicates that for *this* group of birds the amount of space and combination of birds is not working.

 

[Finny303]

The coop is 4X4 two floors. I don't know what you mean by roost. There are 4 nesting boxes. We will see if someone can take three birds and see what hapoens. I am thinking of ridding the birds that don't have lost feathers. Maybe they are the bullies.

 

[aart]

4x4 is small...2 floors makes my thing small coop over run?
The birds without feathers are probably the ones being picked on.....the bullies usually keep their feathers.

 

[123RedBeard]

Think of a roost as a tree branch up off the ground, or a perch like a parrot has ... some people use a 2X4 turned sideways ... it is a place for them to sleep in a ventilated safe environment up off the ground ... since chickens can not really see at night, they are very vulnerable to ground predators, that is why they like to get up (even 3') off the ground ...

A coop sold for ____ chickens is like saying I need a "truck" to haul my chicken feed ... when my car could handle the weight of one bag of feed, or if I'm feeding 10,000 chickens ... I might need a semi-"truck" ... a truck is a truck, but specifications are different ...

Chickens come in many different sizes and temperament ... colors are are hard to tell what breeds you have, some chickens could get by with 8" of roost ... some need more than 2' ... not only is how wide the chickens body important, but how much room they "think" they need for their wings when they fly up to roost ...

Your birds are at the minimum number of "acceptable" square feet per bird, of course if they are tiny bantams, that could be fine ... but, it does not sound like it is "fine" as they are "picking on each other" ... if they are Jersey Giant's ... they are crowded ...

A game camera could catch the "picking/pecking"

 

[Finny303]

Thanks for all the replies. My husband could build an extension to the coop if needed. And will try a roost inside. They do fight to get to the one in there now.