Chicken Memorials

[Stedic]

Hi All,

 

I got my ex-batts on Saturday so they had their first full day of freedom today. The three girls are in the Eglu run and have multiple food and water sources. All of them have been eating and drinking regularly.

 

Today I've noticed that the bullying has been getting a lot worse. Violet, who is quite a bit bigger andhas most of her feathers has been bullying the other two, pecking them and chasing them (particularly scrawny Noodle) into the Eglu. Noodle has been able to get food and water, but before bed tonight this was getting harder for her. To make matters worse, Lola also started pecking her. So at times she would run into the Eglu to hide and be pecked by both of them.

 

My two posh girls never had any pecking order scuffles, so this is all new for me. I don't want to seperate them if its just normal pecking order stuff, but I don't want any bullying to get out of hand while they're still so weak and scraggly.

 

Is it advisable to douse all of them in anti-peck, so that they have chance to build up some feathers - or should I let them get on with it and sort the pecking order out?

[chicken bark]

It should hopefully get better especially when you can give them more space. Can you put perches up in the run and extra feeders so there is plenty to go around and also give Noodle somewhere to hide.

 

It wouldn't hurt to use the anti-pecking spray. (and a water pistol).

 

Good luck it will be worth it.

[sari]

You have my sympathy!! I am too going through this.....I have a pair of sussexs, an exchequer leghorn and a bullied legbar, and the sussexs are really having a go at the legbar. I picked them up Saturday afternoon, and they really bully her. I have anti peck sprayed her ( she was baldy bummed anyway) and have had lots of great advice on here. The water pistol works....! When they start on her they get a quich spray...soon puts them off... I managed to get them all in the pod by 7.20pm tonight, last night I was on my hands and knees at 10ish in chicken poop getting the legbar, and popped her in through the eggport. I know it looks awful, but I have been reassured that it will calm down. I've put a few branches to perch on, a flower pot, dustbath.....lots of distractions, and a few trats in the afternoon.....fingers crossed for me and you both!! x x x

[Stedic]

Further info:

 

I've watched them this morning (just got in from work). They're all pecking each other, but Noodle is frequently chased into the Eglu. If I gently chase her out of it she can get food, but as soon as she gets picked on she runs in and hides. She's definately not getting a huge amount of food though, and without my pushing her out i think she'd stay in there all day.

 

The other two are having s"Ooops, word censored!"s and pulling each others feathers too.

 

I just don't know what to do - I can't FR them to give them space as they're not corn trained and haven't got the hang of going to bed yet. I don't want to delay the pecking order being sorted but they're all so busy squabbling that I'm terrified that they won't get enough food and will die.

 

I'd anti-peck spray them all, but they all came out of the farm with lice, so I don't want to stop them grooming themselves either.

 

Please help, I'm finding this really hard.

 

 

Steve

[Lavenders_Blue]

If you can get hold of some Johnson's Anti Mite Spray, that will treat the lice. You spray the hens with it (need to part the feathers and spray onto skin to ensure contact with the lice) and then treat them again 1 week later to zap any louse eggs that have hatched. You will need to withdraw the eggs for 48hours after each treatment.

 

Unfortunately the hens won't be able to rid themselves of the lice just by preening.

 

Once you have zapped the lice, you can use the anti pecking spray. I also wouldn't be too scared about letting your hens FR. They are unlikely to want to go far from their coop at first and you will be able to pick them up to put them back in, if you are confident with handling them. Being ex-batts, they are also 99% unlikely to attempt flying anywhere. You can always limit their free ranging area at first by creating a pen with some netting or chicken wire. That way you won't have to worry about gathering them in from the far reaches of the garden.

 

Do you have extra food and water stations out? This really helped me when my ex batts first arrived as one of my girls was a real meanie and kept standing in the food dish to stop the others eating. Putting extra sources of food out really helped as she soon learnt she could only guard one at a time! Just something like an ice cream tub/biscuit tin would be okay as a temporary measure (but weight it down if you can as hens have a terrible habit of standing in their food and flinging it all over the place )

 

Really hope that your girls settle down soon - I am sure they will.

[Stedic]

Thanks Lavenders,

 

I've got two food and water stations in, at either end of the runs. They don't seem to squabble over the food, its in between that they have a go at each other. The only time they totally calm down is when my posh girls are FR'ing around the Eglu run.... uniting against a common enemy I guess.

 

I've got some Louse Powder which I was going to use, but I was hoping to let them settle in for a day or two first (I'm also a little anxious about getting them to spread their wings etc).

 

I let them out earlier and sat with a water squirter. I found that if I close the Eglu door things don't actually get any worse and the other two seem to get more food because they run away less. Squirting anyone who was bullying seemed to work, but of course it isn't a sustainable option.

 

I think I'm going to nip out to my local equestrian place - they do some chook stuff so I can get some anti-peck spray and look for the louse spray too. I might treat them and then let them out to free range for a little while to see if that helps at all.

 

If I louse spray them and then anti-peck them, do you think that will ease the problem? Or is this perhaps more to do with establishing the pecking order and likely to last a while?

 

Fingers crossed!

[Nikki_P]

Hi.

I have rehomed ex-batts and I found that they would bully for about 3 days and then they became the best of friends

I hope yours soon settle down, can be awful having to watch them like that.

[Bexibex]

Hi

 

I got my exbats in July and for just over the week the pecking order was established. It was horrible to watch because they would spar with each other like cockerels and then hold each other down. The order changed several times over the week and as they settled in their places, they all then picked on the weakest, Minnie who is my oven ready girl. Only a few feathers on her neck. They never drew blood and although it has settled down, they all stilll chase Minnie away if she finds a tasty morsel or if they feel like it. I do feel sorry for her but at least she can run away from them. At night, they all cuddle together as though they are best of friends. I hope that when she gets her feathers she will get a bit tougher.

[the bradley bunch]

hi steve,

first of all welcome to the forum & can i just say what a lovely thing it is you've done by re-homing 3 ex-battery girls

secondly i'm so sorry to hear you're having such a stressful time

and thirdly i just want to let you know that i can fully sympathise with your situtation as we went through the exact same thing around 5 months ago. like you we re-homed a trio of ex-bats; 1 big full feathered one (hubby insisted on having her!) and 2 bald scrawny ones. obviously the bigger 1 dominated the other 2 like yours is, but i can promise you that this will settle down

 

i know what's happening seems awful but it's honestly worst for you as the owner to watch than it is for the chooks to experience. it is very natural behaviour and a normal process for them to go through to establish the pecking order.

IMHO the best thing you can do for them is to allow them to *free range outside of the run. they don't need to be trained and the worst thing that will happen is that you'll end up running round the garden like a headless chicken (much to your neighbours' amusement!) trying to catch the girls to put them back in the run!

*free ranging should never be unsupervised

 

being trapped in the run doesn't allow the 2 weaker girls anywhere to escape to, and the bigger chook won't appreciate them constantly being in the space she is trying to assert dominance over. it's best to give a new flock a good amount of space to establish the new pecking order to prevent any serious injuries.

squirting with a water gun is a great way to deter any overly aggressive behaviour, but i'd only use it if the chicken is at risk of causing serious injury, for example if she is 'head' pecking, jumping on another chicken's back, or pecking and holding on. if you squirt water everytime there is a little squabble or attack then you run the risk of dragging out the process of establishing the pecking order, as the bigger hen becomes unable to assert her position as top chook if she is stopped everytime she tries to show her dominance (as this is how chickens recognise & accept a hierarchy).

 

as with Nikki it took about 3 days for the 'horrible to watch' bullying to stop with our girls and about a week for the pecking to settle completely, but following this our girls soon became the best of friends

now we have the even more 'difficult to watch' job of introducing one 19 week old pullet to our 3 ex-bats so if you're ever feeling like it's all getting too much then think of our pain!

 

honestly though this time next week you & your girls will all be enjoying each other's company and you'll forget what you were ever worried about

 

good luck & let us all know how you're getting on. if problems do appear or continue or if you have any concerns then there is always somebody here to help, so keep us updated and we look forward to getting to know you & your girlies once you're all settled in nicely! chickens have such personalities (normally full of mischief but lots of love too! ) and you'll soon find that they are all you'll be talking about & this forum is a place where we love to hear all your lovely stories!

 

ps. if things ever get too stressful & you need a distraction then join in the word association game on the nesting box...it's such fun!

[dancing cloud]

Just to add support and echo what has been said before. Ex-batts have had to fight for everything to survive and don't come out with any manners whatsoever! I have now had three batches and they do sort themselves out very quickly. It is unpleasant for us to watch but it is their natural way of establishing their hierarchy. Once they've finished scuffling amongst themselves, the ex-batts will probably have a try at your two posh girls as well, but it really does all settle down and they stop being little thugs and start being proper hens .

 

Hard though it is to do, I've left mine to it and not intervened. My last batch were the worst for fighting and the first day Roxanne ended up with a swollen eye and Lady with a bloodied comb before they called it quits. Roxanne had one go at my then top-chook Daisy when they first met and never again. Daisy wasn't big, but she was mean - just one look was enough!

 

By way of encouragement, after a couple of days of shouting and bawling at each other, I was able to introduce my newbies to my existing rabble within a week each time and let them all free-range together, and all of them intermingled nicely and snuggled up together at night. Hang on in there

[Lavenders_Blue]

I've got some Louse Powder which I was going to use

 

If this is the organic louse powder (can't remember the brand now) it is worse than useless in my experience for ridding the birds of lice. It is designed as a repellant not a treatment, and I found that after 3 weeks of dusting my birds with it they were as louse-y as ever! The Johnson's spray did the trick in 2 applications

[Stedic]

Thanks all,

I managed to use the torch trick to get the girls to go to bed by themselves last night. I also put the roosting bars into the Eglu and they coped ok with those. I'm hoping that the realisation that the food never went away yesterday will help, as will cuddling up to each other overnight.

 

I've deliberatly not sat out with them this AM, just to see if they get on with it themselves. I might try a FR later once it stops raining sideways.

 

Thanks for all your guidance so far. My only remaining questionis whether I should shut the eglu during the day, so the bottom chook can't hide in there? It's good that she can escape, but bad that she's away from he food.

 

On the plus side, my posh girls are happy FR'ing around the Eglu and while there has been some shouting and pecking it's not been too bad. I'm hoping that toward the end of next week they can FR together.

 

The ex-batts already lay in the nestbox, a variety of eggs from normal to tiny and a few softies. But we'll let them off for now while they learn to be chickens!

 

Thank you all so so muchfor your help!

[Cranfield Kate]

I'm probably not supposed to say this as i know it's not formally approved for use on chickens. but i found on other discusssion boards that frontline worked on chickens for lice. we used it on ours and they all died and dropped off over night (good riddance - nasty little devils).

 

Please don't all shout at me if it's been agreed here that it's a Bad Thing To Do!

 

hang on in there steve - it's hideous and upsetting but it will calm down. I'm getting three new ex batts at the end of the month and I am so excited but also really dreading the pecking order bit.

[the bradley bunch]

Thanks for all your guidance so far. My only remaining question is whether I should shut the eglu during the day, so the bottom chook can't hide in there? It's good that she can escape, but bad that she's away from he food.

i'd leave it open as she's obviously found somewhere she feels safe and her hiding also acknowledges the other hen's dominance over the space outside so is allowing the formation of a hierarchy. she'll come out if she needs food/water, you might just not be noticing it if she's nipping in & out quickly. to help her make sure there is food & water available at the end of the run close to the eglu, as well as at the far end.

if you are worried or if she's showing signs of dehydration (normally a wilting comb is the best indicator of this, but most ex-bats have pale wilting combs anyway, so i think you're best bet is too check her eyes are still bright and that she's not acting lethargic), then offer her a little bowl of water in the eglu every now & again and dip her beak in it to encourage her to take some if she's thirsty.

 

On the plus side, my posh girls are happy FR'ing around the Eglu and while there has been some shouting and pecking it's not been too bad. I'm hoping that toward the end of next week they can FR together.

try feeding treats along the edge of the run for them to all access to encourage interaction between the ex-bats & posh girls before they are all allowed to FR together.

 

The ex-batts already lay in the nestbox, a variety of eggs from normal to tiny and a few softies. But we'll let them off for now while they learn to be chickens!

don't be too dissapointed if your girls don't ever lay 'perfect' eggs, unfortunately because of the intensive laying they've been put through as young hens, ex-bats don't tend to lay for as long as other hens and you may get a variety of eggs - from the wonderful to the weird! we've had an egg everyday since they were rescued 5 months ago from 2 of our ex-bats...one gives us a huge white one & the other a beautifuly coloured small terracota one

but our other girl is a very irregular layer and the eggs we do get from her are often softies or very tiny...but when she does lay a hard shelled one it makes it all the more special no matter how small it is, and me & hubby always fight over who gets to eat it!

 

basically what i'm trying to say is that our girls' egg laying hasn't changed at all since they came to live with us, even though their lives have changed miraculously, so don't be put off or feel that you're doing something wrong if you continue to get a variety of different eggs ...like us you'll find that each one is just as delicious as the next!

and a great tip for softies is to keep all of your used egg shells; bake them and then grind them up to feed back to your girls. this is what we do & it really does work a treat

[Bexibex]

"don't be too dissapointed if your girls don't ever lay 'perfect' eggs, unfortunately because of the intensive laying they've been put through as young hens, ex-bats don't tend to lay for as long as other hens and you may get a variety of eggs - from the wonderful to the weird! we've had an egg everyday since they were rescued 5 months ago from 2 of our ex-bats...one gives us a huge white one & the other a beautifuly coloured small terracota one

but our other girl is a very irregular layer and the eggs we do get from her are often softies or very tiny...but when she does lay a hard shelled one it makes it all the more special no matter how small it is, and me & hubby always fight over who gets to eat it! "

 

Thanks so much for this post - it makes me feel so much better. Of my four ex bats, three lay very regularly but Blanche the top chook has problems. Since we got them in July she has laid three tiny wind eggs and since then the occasional soft shell or just a yolk or just a white. However, on Monday she laid her first 'proper' egg with a hard shell and fully formed. I am so proud of her. It is still small and a strange shape but it is an egg! I felt so sorry for her before because she would in the nest box for up to an hour making all the egg laying noises and have nothing to show for it. I am like a proud mum!

[dancing cloud]

Well done Blanche! Definitely something to be proud of!

 

I've had several girls stop laying after a couple of weeks out and then re-start - after 5 1/2 months in Dandelion's case - and had their eggs change over time. Joy's eggs initially were white and very lumpy-bumpy and everyone wanted a Joy-egg in their box but, after a pause of a few weeks laying nothing, they became brown and ordinary. Roxanne hasn't laid an egg since March/April and may or may not see fit to start again (though she is the plumpest and best-feathered of the February rescue so I still have hopes) and my lovely Daisy stopped laying altogether for her last 15 months. Lola lays quite dark brown roundish eggs and Little Chicken lays white torpedoes . My oldest Chance, who has been out for 27 months, still gives me an occasional egg, so it seems to be pot-luck as to how many eggs you may get from ex-batts and what size/shape/colour they are. Everything welcomed

[the bradley bunch]

"don't be too dissapointed if your girls don't ever lay 'perfect' eggs, unfortunately because of the intensive laying they've been put through as young hens, ex-bats don't tend to lay for as long as other hens and you may get a variety of eggs - from the wonderful to the weird! we've had an egg everyday since they were rescued 5 months ago from 2 of our ex-bats...one gives us a huge white one & the other a beautifuly coloured small terracota one

but our other girl is a very irregular layer and the eggs we do get from her are often softies or very tiny...but when she does lay a hard shelled one it makes it all the more special no matter how small it is, and me & hubby always fight over who gets to eat it! "

 

Thanks so much for this post - it makes me feel so much better. Of my four ex bats, three lay very regularly but Blanche the top chook has problems. Since we got them in July she has laid three tiny wind eggs and since then the occasional soft shell or just a yolk or just a white. However, on Monday she laid her first 'proper' egg with a hard shell and fully formed. I am so proud of her. It is still small and a strange shape but it is an egg! I felt so sorry for her before because she would in the nest box for up to an hour making all the egg laying noises and have nothing to show for it. I am like a proud mum!

 

you're very welcome bex and well done to little Blanche!

[Stedic]

Thank you all so much for your advice.

 

I just thought I'd give you a quick update. The bullying was really bad for about 5 days in total, I found a wound on Noodle (bottom hen) comb which I had to use Gentian Violet on. She's still a bit scared but seems to hide behind Violet (top hen) which keeps her a little safer. Yesterday there was still some bullying, but I let them out for their first couple of free ranges and that went OK.

 

I haven't managed to get them corn trained yet, predominantly because they seem to struggle to eat corn. Once I've got that sorted they can have some longer FRs and then meet the posh girls in the big wide world. I'm hoping they will get the hang of corn soon, if not Sultanas or something else tasty.

 

In terms of eggs I am tending to get two decent eggs each day, and then a big white egg on alternate days which I think Noodle is laying when she feels like it. I made a cake with their eggs when all three laid, and then made a tiny bun with sultanas and corn in which they had as a 'freedom cake' once it had gone a little stale.

 

I love them to bits, even though they are very hard work! I can't wait for them to learn about corn so they can come out for longer (and be easy enough to put away!).

 

Thanks again,

 

Steve

 

PS - Pictures to follow!