Why are they doing this? Please help

[aurorabev]

They caused a hole the size of a large egg. Poor thing. It broke my heart to put him down. Well hubby did it for me. I wish it was just was just them preening. I have one rooster now I think is what happened to him. But it was on his wing. He is almost back to his old self and getting ready to get back out of his cage. I have seen some with bald places. But nothing like what happened this morning. I have just never seen anything like it. I will have to watch them a little closer than I usually do. I must have sent my son out there once an hour day. And they were acting like nothing was wrong. Happy chickens running and playing. I just prayer I don't find another one in the morning. Thanks for the info. I will have to look into it more.

NIght!
Aurorabev

 

[Heather J]

I know I had problems with this with my chicks when they outgrew their nursery area-lost two little pullets in two days--which made me arrange other quarters immediately. I haven't had any problems since. Hopefully when your other roo starts feeling better the girls will leave him alone.

 

[the1much]

girls are so MEAN!!

 

[MissPrissy]

How many chickens do you have? How big is their pen? What are you feeding them? How much and how often?

Yes, chickens will turn cannibalistic. It is not uncommon.

The chicken world is cold and cruel. If there is a sick or weak chicken in the flock the others will take it down and kill it in their pre-programed natural instinct to preserve the strong and best and the survival of the flock.

 

[aurorabev]

Hey MIssPrissy.... I have now 24 chickens. They have a very big pen. Two levels. plenty of room to roost. All the roost are at the same level. They get scratch, chick feed, and now I have been putting in some laying feed. Plus they get fresh veggies from the garden. They love peaches but they favorite is cucumbers. They get feed in the morning and more in the evening or as needed. They are spoiled.
They have started doing some digging . They dig beside they water bowls until they have a nice hole and when they get water in there they go crazy playing in it.

I am, I guess, glad to know that it is not uncommon for them to do that. Maybe he was sick or something. He just didn't seem like it. Now he wasn't one of the mean ones. He was one of my sweet Brahmas. Not like the mean Orpingtons. I also have
Astralorps , Blue Andalusians and Phoenixs.

Thank you everyone for your help. I really don't know what I would do without this board. You all rock!

 

[SunAngel]

I am going through something similar with one of my Polish chickens. Its very frustrating. I have 3 Polish and only 1 of them is getting its top hat feathers plucked out.

Is it possible a chicken just loves having their feathers plucked out and encourages it? Because the other two never seem to be missing feathers.

I finally separated her for the last month to see if the feathers would grow back. They were all coming back, not sure what you call them when they are spikey and covered in the harder covering. She was doing really good, so I put her back in with the big girls yesterday. This morning, she has a big bare red circle in the center of her top hat...grrrrr. She has been separated again, I guess this time I will wait til her top hat is completely feathered in.

I have no clue who is the feather plucker either.

 

[illinichick]

I have had this happen with young hens. I tried hanging cabbages from the ceiling for them to peck, I tried empty water bottles for them to peck and play, even a piece of fire wood , just to keep them busy. I ended up losing 2-3, they would go into shock and just sit and let the others eat their back sides until they just bled to death. Traumatic, and glad it finally just stopped on its own.

 

[aurorabev]

I sure hope it ends soon. And I hope none of us lose anymore chicks that way.

Solarical... Now I did have that happen a few times. One day they are fine and the next day they are missing half they feathers.

Kautz.... I guess that is what happened to this one. He must have been in shock to just lay there and let them do that to him. I have never seen something as bad as that in such a short period of time.

I keep sending my sons out to check on them to make sure it is not happening again. Hubby said this weekend he would make a few tractors to put the bad ones in to see if that would help. Anything right now to help the problem stop. I may have to try the log thing and see if that may help some. We live in the woods so I have plenty of trees to find bugs and things in. Think I will go find them a good buggy log right now.

 

[chickflick]

Are you saying that you feed them in the morning and then again at night? Chickens should have feed available to them at all times. They eat all day long. Just want to make sure I understood what you said.

 

[aurorabev]

I fill their food containers every morning and when they need it. They have food all the time. They are spoiled. Trust me the farm I grow up on when I was a kid taught me well how to feed them. But not how to deal with this problem. I have never seen chickens do this. We had over 100 and sometimes more chickens, geese, ducks, cows, pigs, and sometimes wild animals on the farm. And I never saw a one of them do what was done. If it did happen my parents never told me. And since they are not here on earth any longer I couldn't ask them.

So yes Chickflick my chickens have food all the time. I wish that was the problem. That is a easy fix.

Kautz.... I sent my sons out in the woods to look for the buggies peice of wood they could find. I hope that help out some. Did it hep yours any? Did they like it?

Night everyone!