Why are my chickens aggressive at night when roosting?

[Annalyse]

Every night I have to deal with the hens either pecking really hard at each other or biting/pecking there feet hard and I have to keep intervening. It's always when there roosting. I mean throughout the day yes they are a little bit like dont touch my food or they hate sharing lol. Well my silkie sleeps alone on the second roosts bc they always pack and bully her so she gets hurt and I have to keep her safe. Any ideas why to any of this lol i dont know

 

[sourland]

The chicken social order is not always kind. What you are describing is normal behavior. The only solution is more roost space or separate sleeping quarters.

 

[Ebony Rose]

Unless they're drawing blood, you need to quit intervening. This is normal, pecking order establishment or reinforcement. Chickens really need to work this out among themselves.

 

[Sablehaven]

Roosting position is determined by pecking order, higher perch = higher status. They need more space, pure and simple. If you have an isolation coop (you want one) you can remove the worst offenders for two weeks or so to knock them down the pecking order a bit.

 

[aart]

RoostTimeRumble.....the most contentious time of the day.

 

[WindingRoad]

Every night I have to deal with the hens either pecking really hard at each other or biting/pecking there feet hard and I have to keep intervening. It's always when there roosting. I mean throughout the day yes they are a little bit like dont touch my food or they hate sharing lol. Well my silkie sleeps alone on the second roosts bc they always pack and bully her so she gets hurt and I have to keep her safe. Any ideas why to any of this lol i dont know

When it was hot this past summer the pecking was bad because some thought they should snuggle. But that stopped when they realized it was too hot to snuggle lol. They will work in out. I sing my lullaby and that seems to calm them some. I pat each one to socialize them too.

 

[Annalyse]

Thank you. I only intervene bc I hate seeing them hrit eachother but I do socialize with them and give them mama time at night bc when one gets pecked I make sure there okay and I baby them. Before the first snow I'm going to be adding 2 top roosts so theres enough space and add a single one underneath it incase my silkie gets kicked off. My coop is small. I wasnt planning on 7 chickens cause I thought I was getting 4 well that didnt go well lol so we gave them a much bigger run so the coop is just a relax, laying egg, sleeping area plus food and water. I'm trying my best to keep them comfortable

 

[3KillerBs]

the coop is just a relax, laying egg, sleeping area plus food and water.

I'm sorry, but that thinking doesn't work.

The chickens need 4 square feet per bird INSIDE THE COOP (space taken up by the feeder, waterer, and nest boxes doesn't count), in addition to 10 square foot per bird in the run.

Also a square foot of ventilation per bird and a foot of roost space per bird.

Overcrowded chickens will show aggression to each other and their health will suffer.

 

[Birdsong 82]

Yes. There is fuss every night as my girls get their spot roosting ( just usually to end up in the same place). So I wouldn't intervene unless there is blood being drawn.
Overcrowding will also cause aggression towards each other ( along with other things) but I can't say because don't know the size of your coop or size of roosting area so don't know if it's overcrowding issue or not

 

[Annalyse]

Yes. There is fuss every night as my girls get their spot roosting ( just usually to end up in the same place). So I wouldn't intervene unless there is blood being drawn.
Overcrowding will also cause aggression towards each other ( along with other things) but I can't say because don't know the size of your coop or size of roosting area so don't know if it's overcrowding issue or not

The coop is built attached to the giant run. The run is big and doesnt need to be bigger but the coop I wont be able to make bigger so I'm trying my best with moving things around and making it as spacious as possible.