BUNTINGS Posted May 23, 2008 Share Posted May 23, 2008 Hi We are a small children's nursery who have been keeping chickens only for a few months. We hatched 2 sussexs who have been great and then rescued 3 ex-battery hens. We followed all the advice given and they are in a small enclosure and all seemed to be going fine. However, on Wednesday one of the ex-batts was attacked by another ex-batt. It was quite scary we managed to separte the attacker from the others. The chicken who was attacked was quite weak and over the couple of weeks we had her she began to grow back her feathers and slightly put on weight. However after the attack she bled from her foot and wing and sadly over night died. Now we feel quite scared to go in with the chickens as they are pecking furiously at us if we enter and flapping up to our faces. Obviously this is scary and we do not want our children to either be scared of the chickens too or to be picked and attacked by one. We still have the chicken who was the origional 'bully' separated (which she hates)as we did try to put her back with the others but they began to fight. Any suggestions of how to restore harmony would be great. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Egluntyne Posted May 23, 2008 Share Posted May 23, 2008 Welcome to the forum. Sorry to hear about your nasty experience. When you say "a small enclosure" how much room have they got exactly? They need room to get away from eachother if need be. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BUNTINGS Posted May 23, 2008 Author Share Posted May 23, 2008 Sorry, the enclose is quite small compared to our garden but it is around 6ft wide and 35 ft long. At the moment the attacking chicken is in a small part of the run and seems quite distressed not to be in the main part. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Egluntyne Posted May 23, 2008 Share Posted May 23, 2008 6ft x 35 ft! Bang goes my theory about them not having enough room. I would have suggested bumper bit for the pecky hens, but that will not solve the flapping at you problem. What are you feeding them on? Is something disturbing them, such as a rat? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kaylis1980 Posted May 23, 2008 Share Posted May 23, 2008 Sorry, the enclose is quite small compared to our garden but it is around 6ft wide and 35 ft long. At the moment the attacking chicken is in a small part of the run and seems quite distressed not to be in the main part. i want your garden then!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BUNTINGS Posted May 24, 2008 Author Share Posted May 24, 2008 At the moment they are on mash as advised by the bhwt and the 2 chickens i hatched are around 13 weeks old. Do you think it might be a food problem... any suggestions on what i should give them. We have lots of peelings and sraps of all kinds come from our kitchen, what would you advise to feed them? I don't think anything is spooking them- maybe the children????!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
