# Chicken Question



## Shellshocker66 (Mar 19, 2012)

I'm going to try to keep this short, but I've got some of the strangest hens and I don't remember chickens being this difficult in the past when I raised them.

So I have 12 golden laced wyandotte hens, and one barred rock rooster because I could not find a GLW rooster.

The gals have always been on the difficult side, example the other day I was in with the goats about 100 yards away from the chicken pen, when I noticed a fox walking right up to the pen. I was thinking "Oh no he is going to grab a chicken".. Do my gals run away? NO they ran right up to the wire where the fox was to attack it! That fox took off like it's tail was on fire and I was not even out of the gate before this happened.

Now it's great my hens are pretty aggressive with predators, but here is the problem. My rooster is really pretty mild mannered, and they've started pecking him raw. I'm treating him with blu kote, and antibiotic ointment. But I think I'm going to have to remove him from the gals. 

I've read that chickens will peck if they are bored, or not enough space. But their house provides plenty of room and their pen is not that small (they use to free range till they started laying, they are so dumb eggs would be everywhere and I don't want to pretend I'm having an easter egg hunt everyday). I'm constantly throwing in veggies from the garden, scratch, yogurt and all sorts of goodies. Now the one thing I've noticed is they didn't start this till I put them on their organic layer pellets and I'm wondering if it's a food related issue?

I'm trying everything but I think I'm seeing evidence that they are starting to peck each other. I've looked for mites and they look clean, and I sprinkle DE in their coop.

Anyone have any suggestions I might want to try? I hate the thought of debeaking them, but they are going to kill that rooster if I don't find something to stop them. And the rooster hates being out of the pen away from the hens.


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## liz (Oct 5, 2007)

The only experience I have with chickens are with the ones my mom raised as I was growing up... they are cannibals when it comes to pecking each other and once a wound is created, they'll keep on it until the victim is removed and allowed to heal, my mom would use a betadine salve on wounds and keep the victim in a goat stall until it was healed up...in the meantime however, she'd takes some meaty soup bones out of the freezer and give them to the rest of the flock.... these were usually deer and sometimes beef but it normally satisfied their need for blood and they'd stop picking each other. Drawback to this is that sometimes those bones would attract other critters.... and mom would end up out in the dark with a shotgun and flashlight!


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## Shellshocker66 (Mar 19, 2012)

liz said:


> The only experience I have with chickens are with the ones my mom raised as I was growing up... they are cannibals when it comes to pecking each other and once a wound is created, they'll keep on it until the victim is removed and allowed to heal, my mom would use a betadine salve on wounds and keep the victim in a goat stall until it was healed up...in the meantime however, she'd takes some meaty soup bones out of the freezer and give them to the rest of the flock.... these were usually deer and sometimes beef but it normally satisfied their need for blood and they'd stop picking each other. Drawback to this is that sometimes those bones would attract other critters.... and mom would end up out in the dark with a shotgun and flashlight!


Thank Liz!

Yeah it's been 20 something years since I last raised chickens and I remember the meat varieties especially being brutal with pecking each other (I had a product at that the time that I can't remember the name of but it worked wonders and stopped the pecking). I just never had the layer chickens do this.

And the fact that they really started tearing the rooster up after I switched to the local feed mill organic layer pellet has me wondering if it's a lack of protein. My uncle also suggested what your mom use to do, and it's to actually help increase the protein which is one of the reason why they turn all cannibal. So I decided to use yogurt and goat cheese (that yucky store purchased stuff that smells like buck) and the chickens love it! They quickly ate 2 8oz yogurts within an hour! Don't know if it's working yet as they are still covered in blu Kote but I don't see any fresh red spots.


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## dobe627 (Oct 16, 2007)

If they are lacking protien I just read abbout feeding the dry cat ffood. Although if you are going organic that won't work


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## PznIvyFarm (Jul 25, 2010)

Sounds like they have decided the rooster is on the low end of the totem pole. Someone always has to be, but generally you don't want it to be your roo, he is supposed to be the supreme leader :wink: 

I haven't had GLW, but my Arucaunas (not Americaunas) tend to be more 'wild type' I have noticed they are more aggressive toward other things (not me, but cats, dogs, etc) and the babies are active from an early age, going for bugs, playing chase with things like feathers and sticks, very different from the usual hatchery chicks that eat/drink/sleep and don't do much else. Maybe your birds are similar?


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## Shellshocker66 (Mar 19, 2012)

PznIvyFarm said:


> Sounds like they have decided the rooster is on the low end of the totem pole. Someone always has to be, but generally you don't want it to be your roo, he is supposed to be the supreme leader :wink:
> 
> I haven't had GLW, but my Arucaunas (not Americaunas) tend to be more 'wild type' I have noticed they are more aggressive toward other things (not me, but cats, dogs, etc) and the babies are active from an early age, going for bugs, playing chase with things like feathers and sticks, very different from the usual hatchery chicks that eat/drink/sleep and don't do much else. Maybe your birds are similar?


And I also agree that my rooster is just not man enough for those gals! Poor guy he is sweet for a rooster, but he was raised with several other roos, so he was probably always on the lower end of the pecking order. He has a hard time even figuring out how to fertilize them.

But then again they are starting on each other, not to the extent of the poor rooster who looks like hamburger... And it does sound like your Arucaunas, they are very aggressive with anything coming near them except me.


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## DavyHollow (Jul 14, 2011)

I had a barred plymouth and 2 production reds that I got along with another barred plymouth as chicks. The local menace, a neighborhood black cat, killed the barred plymouth when we had the 4 outside one day. Luckily the other 3 escaped. 

About 5 months and much more weight and feathers later, the 3 survivors were wandering the property, and suddenly the black cat appeared again. My older rhode islands ran off, but these 3 took off at the cat, flapping and squawking and pecking! The cat was terrified! I haven't seen it around since, cept in the distance running by as quickly as possible.

Were your girls attacked as babies? These 3 ended up being the toughest of the crew, about 6 older Rhodes, and poor Turkey (our lowest in the pecking order, a red who ended up with only two toe nails on each foot, no tail, and a bald head) was often their victim. I feel like when the dummies rise to the occasion once they feel a sense of entitlement for the rest of forever.


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## LetsGoKids (Mar 20, 2012)

I have had many breeds of chickens and in my expirience the wyandottes as a whole breed seem aggressive. Mine would attack the other hens and they were grain trough bullies. However I cant say they all are bad. Somehow I ended up with a lone silver laced Wyandotte hen in an order for black australorp roosters and she is the gentlest hen I have at the moment. And my dads girlfriend has the Columbian variety and they pester her other hens but not nearly as bad as some. My favorite breed is the Plymouth Rocks, especially the partridge color.


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## Dayna (Aug 16, 2012)

What an imformative thread! I've got four chickens. Well I kinda have them. We have feral chickens all over the Island, it's a real problem here. My friend trapped 3 young hens and a young rooster. I've wanted chickens for bug control so I let them loose here on my three acres.

They are pretty friendly, I can't touch them but they come looking for food. I did notice that they eat a lot of my cat food.... And a lot of bugs.

Maybe your chickens need more bugs? Can you raise maggots for them? That's a big thing here on the island.


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## LetsGoKids (Mar 20, 2012)

Just reread your post. Pellets increase cannibalism. The hens fill up faster on feed and get bored So they start pecking at things including each other. Thats why I don't feed pellets. I know some ppl think its bad but I feed my hens meat scraps for protein. No chicken or other poultry mainly roasted pig leftovers and the occasional ham or beef roast leftovers.


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## Shellshocker66 (Mar 19, 2012)

I see the thread has a few replies I've missed.

My gals were not attacked when they were young. They were about 3-4 days old when I got them from the feed store. Always been aggressive towards other animals (except they love to creep into the goat pens). But a little bird land near them and 12 swarming gals go after it!

And I think that a couple of things might be the problem which folks have hit on. #1 being the protein and checking my organic food it's soy based. Probably not providing them the level of protein they were getting while free ranging. 

2nd think the boredom factor, they love to scratch and tear up everything (my garden being the best of them all)..

So I've added more protein via lots of yogurt (this is the greek all natural) and thrown in layers of old straw for them to dig to their hearts content, plus I'm keeping them very occupied with melons, squash, and cukes from the garden. I just want to get a couple more weeks of them used to laying in the nest boxes before I let them free range again. These gals are all brawn and no brains! I've been finding eggs everywhere, until the last week it's finely settled to mostly the nest boxes and not the ground outside the coop.


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## onehorse_2000 (Sep 17, 2012)

The transition from free-range to coop bound is enough to set a lot of breeds of chickens off and Wyandottes are a bit higher strung then a lot of breeds. Plus, hatchery birds (what you usually get at feed stores) are usually crossed with egg laying hybrids for egg production, causing them to be a bit nuts and nasty too (only cock that has very attacked me was our commercial "Buff Orpington"). It isn't unusual for chickens to first start laying outside of the nesting boxes, but yes, the sooner you can get them back out to free-range the better or a much bigger housing area. I find the 4' of coop space and 10' of run space to be 1/2 the amount of space that large fowl breeds need to be happy.


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