Struggling to get new chickens integrated- HELP!

[kostfarm]

But none of the other chickens are injured and there's no sign of a break in. Now that we have the other chicken seperated they are all laying down right in front of her waiting for her to come out. It feels like they are just waiting to kill her too. It's very eerie

 

[kostfarm]

The other thing that is strange is that there has never been any blood drawn from pecking and they never got into big squabbles. We are just a little shocked how it escalated to this.

 

[aart]

Quote: Agrees, it sounds more like a predator....could be weasel...gaps around door.
Examine all that chicken wire very closely

 

[kostfarm]

Ok so should we integrate the barred rock back in again? She's been seperated a few hours now. We will check all chicken wore closely. It's strange they only killed one bird

 

[Intheswamp]

They killed one of the barred rocks this morning. When I went out there she was laying on the floor of the run with no head. I was horrified and still am so heartbroken. It looks like they attacked her in the coop. There's blood all throughout the coop. We went ahead and sepearted the other barred rock and put her back in the dog crate. Not sure what happened or what to do now. They all seemed fine and then Something this morning made them snap. I've attached a picture of our set up. Maybe it was too crowded

I'm thinking predator, also. For a secure coop anything over 1/2" needs to be closed up. Chain-link is rather porous and the gaps around the door are large, too.

But, on your mention of being too crowded... What are the dimensions of your coop? Of your run? It looks to me like you're too crowded for the number of birds, at least in regards to the coop. I would go with no less than a 4x8 floor area for eight chickens...that area does not include nest boxes.

Best wishes,
Ed

 

[Intheswamp]

Ok so should we integrate the barred rock back in again? She's been seperated a few hours now. We will check all chicken wore closely. It's strange they only killed one bird

I think I would wrap that pet cage with hardware cloth or either move it back to the house for a night or three and see if anything happens to one of the sex-links over the next few nights. You *could* leave the BR sitting beside the run...if something happens to her inside the cage and the sex-links were penned in the big coop you would know it was a non-chicken murderer. But, then it'd be dead.

Ed

 

[kostfarm]

We integrated her back in and they are being pretty aggressive with her as she's the only one left now. She's safe on the roof. The coop inside not including the nest boxes is 4x4. The dog pen is 10x10.

 

[Intheswamp]

4x4 coop is probably only good for four large breed chickens...on a good day.

The 10x10 run....good for 10 large breed chickens...again, on a good day.

You might be better off just letting the BR be a "free range" chicken...fix it a spot where it can get out of the weather and a feed/water station.

Ed

 

[aart]

4x4 coop is probably only good for four large breed chickens...on a good day.

The 10x10 run....good for 10 large breed chickens...again, on a good day.

You might be better off just letting the BR be a "free range" chicken...fix it a spot where it can get out of the weather and a feed/water station.

Ed

Ditto Dat^^^^

Crowded spaces are very hard to live in let alone integrate new birds into.

 

[kostfarm]

Ok thanks for the info. The box on the coop said good for 8 chickens. Clearly not true. We are willing to get a bigger coop if that would solve the problem.