Elanor Gardner wrote:Well I just completed chicken coop number 3. I suppose you may be wondering why I needed three coops. Well it's like this.
We've all been there.
If you've kept more than three chickens for more than a year, you've had to deal with pecking order issues.
It's a thing that chickens do. No worries. It's not you. It's them.
Elanor Gardner wrote:My rhode island reds are some feisty birds. They are not happy until they henpeck one of their flock to near death. We'll move the victim to a new coop, and a month or two later, they repeat the cycle with one of the remaining flock members. A week ago we tried to put the latest henpecking victim (we call her Miss Prissy) in with the first victim. (You would think they would be good friends seeing as they have a near death experience in common.) Only now Victim 1 (we also call her Miss Prissy) has regained her strength, and is feisty, and wants to kill the latest henpecked victim. Hence, the third coop. I put it inside the run of the second coop. Hopefully they will look at each other for a week or so, and get used to each to each other and then I can remove the third coop. (Hopefully, meaning before winter...) The third coop was built of scraps but is sturdy and safe. It was extremely hard to build as I am on day three of a nasty virus myself, and probably should have been resting. Oh well.
I'm sorry you're ill and hope you feel better soon!
About the chickens, the first few questions when talking about pecking order issues are always going to be the same:
How much space do you have for them?
How many birds do you have in total? What's the breakdown of gender?
Do you let them have time outside their enclosed space? Have you set up any play areas for them?
While we don't need details of their living area, it never hurts for you to think about what you can change and the ways you can easily do it.
The other members of this thread have given a lot of good advice - I'm thinking about adding a couple of tennis balls covered in peanut butter and seed to my yard, now.
I've tried the suspended cabbage and found that it took my flock a couple of days to figure out it was edible, but they then destroyed that poor cabbage in a short time.
I've also suspended other things with more or less success. Basically, if your flock enjoys a treat, making it into the goal of a challenge can add some interest to the whole situation.
Anytime they aren't pecking at each other is time well spent, in my opinion. Giving them new things to peck at, or play with and new situations to explore is a great idea, as is cycling through a few things that you discover you and they enjoy. Anything can become a habit if it's always present, so jazzing the area up by substituting something new or suspending a turnip instead of a cabbage, or some romaine, or ... will be just as wonderful.
A change is as good as a break, for chickens as well as people.
The problem with what to do with your injured is a bit more ... what do you want to do-ish.
I'm going to assume you want the injured girls to recover and eventually return to the flock. Wound treatment is going to have to be part of your plan - basic first aid for chickens, and domestic fowl in general, and some preplanning for a care chest for them.
I prefer what I call Wound Dust. or "magic blue powder", which is a mix of activated charcoal and sulpha powder. It's in a plastic bottle with a "poofer" so you can "poof" it on wounds. It helps the wound to clot and prevents a lot of infections and other secondary problems. I've used it on my husband with good results - it's NOT approved by ER doctors who have to use acetone to remove it when you take your husband in for stitches.
I keep a stock of Wound Dust, an aloe-based sunburn cream with lidocaine, vet wrap, Betadine, triple-antibiotic ointment, petroleum jelly, and a good scalpel set ready to go for chicken and bird care. It's done me well over the years and answers most of the immediate problems. My emergency orange Vet Box is kept in a prominent location, just in case.
Treat the obvious wounds, make sure they have water and good quality food, and let them heal. Time will take care of things and let you know what more might be needed.
As far as introducing them to each other, again you've been given some really good advice. Slowly, through fences, and with someplace to run to, is the best advice I have. The two injured hens will try to establish a pecking order between the two of them. Once they get settled, recover from everything, and you're ready to reintroduce both of them, just repeat on a larger scale. Lots of hiding places and safe spaces, lots of fences, and lots of time to settle down.
Elanor Gardner wrote:Buy cinnamon queens, because rhode island reds are simply too feisty. That is really the moral of the story.
Well, you might want to try a new breed, or get a mixed lot of chicks and try a bunch of new breeds.
It depends on what your goals are, tolerances for different behavior, climate, space, and personal tolerances, ... There are a lot of factors that go into picking a chicken breed out of the breeds that are out there. A very quick lookup showed that there are between 53 and 500 breeds of chicken, depending on who you listen to and what you consider a "breed". That's a lot of variation! Take your time. There's no rush.
I have Dorkings. I highly recommend them to just about everyone. Everyone on Permies who has chickens will have a favorite breed or type.
I have had Cinnamon Queens. My surviving Cinnamon Queen, of the chicks I had started that year, was a spunky thing who earned the name "Little Red" from my husband who had noticed her around when he was feeding the flock for me. She managed to hide a nest and successfully hatch four chicks of assorted parentage.
I have had New Hampshire Reds. My surviving New Hampshire Red was a good hen for her 5-year stint in the flock. Gotta love a hen with sticking power!
I haven't had any Rhode Island Reds, to my knowledge, unless it was in the very early days of my chicken keeping. They would have been up against non-commercial Leghorns, which is not an enviable position for any bird.
Before you give up chicken keeping as a Bad Job, think about why you want chickens and what you want your relationship with your flock to be. That's always a good first start. You can then double-check that against what you've learned and see if there might be a good way forward for you.
Best of luck with your flock!
