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PapaJuliet

Help. Hen pecked chicken

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I got 3 chickens last November from Omlet (2 Pepperpots and one Gingernuts) and was told that one of them was a week older than the other 2.

 

They seemed to get on OK up until now but we have just noticed that one of them (the oldest one) seems to have a pecked area on her back. There doesn't seem to be any blood drawn and she seems happy enough in herself but I am now worried about her. I have never seen any of the hens pecking each other and she doesn't seem to avoid the other 2.

 

Annoyingly, she's the one who seems least keen on being picked up so while we were trying to round her up this afternoon so that I could have a look at her, she would run / fly away from us then immediately went back to scratching in the ground so she doesn't appear to be particularly distressed.

 

I let them out to free range in the garden whenever we are home and it's light enough. Up until this week that has been Friday afternoons and some weekends but this week they have also had about 10 to 30 minutes each evening. When we are out there are 3 hens in the standard Eglu / run, currently on the "lawn" but we are going to try to build a permanent area this weekend (the "lawn" does tend to go to mud in the weather we have been having).

 

Any advice, please?

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As there's no apparent injury I'd say just leave it a while and see if you can keep an eye on them this weekend when they're free-ranging - I don't know about where you are, but the weather forecast here is lovely :)

 

Also, have you checked the eglu for feathers? I suppose it's possible that your "pecked" chicken is having a mini-moult or something. Some hens do develop temporary bald patches when they moult :shock:

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Sounds odd. My girls haven't got the brains to be devious about bullying so its always been really obvious if one is getting a hard time from the others.

 

I'd just watch and keep an eye on things. If you want to check her out, take her out of the Eglu at night after they've settled - she'll be easy to pick up.

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I had a hen who would peck at the backs of the other two hens.(Right at the base of the back just before the tail starts)

At first it wasn't a massive problem but after a while she was literally taking chunks out of them and they had bleeding wounds within a few hours.

She had to be fitted with a bumper bit which stopped her drawing blood but after a couple of weeks she was back to being able to pull the feathers out :roll:

 

I would use some anti peck spray/purple spray or bitter beak on the pecked hens ASAP and you may end up having to fit the bully with a 'bumper bit' as it seems that situations can go from bad to worse very quickly so prevention is better than cure in my opinion :D

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Thank you all for your replies. According to todays evidence, the pecking is happening because two (chickens) won't go into one (nest box). This may mean I have to upgrade to a multi-nest box solution... cube or converted "summer house" :roll: but as an immediate solution, I'll get the spray.

 

I had a hen who would peck at the backs of the other two hens.(Right at the base of the back just before the tail starts)

 

That's exactly where it's happening, which I think is why I didn't notice earlier. I had noticed one or two feathers in the nest box from time to time but I didn't think that was a bad thing :oops: I'm a first time chicken owner so I didn't know what to expect.

 

i'm going to check tomorrow at our local Pets at Home to see whether they have any anti-peck spray, otherwise I'll order from Omlet.

 

I've no advice to offer on the "bullying" but if you're going for a permanent run, I can't recommend hemcore highly enough

 

We spent today flattening a flower bed for the permanent run. It was almost exactly the right size so we just built the back side up with earth - it looks as though it was designed for the eglu. I've been planning the permanent run for a few weeks. I got a bale of hemcore last week from the same place I got my new bag of pellets - a kind of "drive through" farm shop :lol: I ended up using half the bale in the run. The henchen were certainly interested in it when they went back in.

 

PJ

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Also, I think Tikka is a "one man" chicken. She will "crouch" for my partner but the avoids me like the plague. :roll:

 

However, I did manage to catch her to check her back this morning by cornering her down the side of the conservatory (which I felt bad about because she tried to escape by flying into the side of the conservatory) and she sat very quietly in my arms - she didn't seem panicky or anything. We then tried to convince her that being picked up isn't too bad by bribing her with a grape. We'll keep working on it and see how she gets on.

 

PJ

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