Aggressive Flock

[TheFarmersWife167]

Hello all!

We got a new flock of pullets a few weeks ago, 77 in total, from a local hatchery. They are cross-breed egg layers. Everything started out fine, but a couple weeks in we started having 1 or 2 die every few days. At first we thought it was due to the heatwave. Some had some injuries from pecking but we assumed it was from the other chickens pecking (after death).

Unfortunately, the cause seems to be the chickens themselves. We have witnessed a lot of aggression between the chickens. They are literally pecking each other to death. We continue to remove the injured ones and heal them up. We tried to remove the bullies but there seems to be new ones every day.

We have them in 2 mobile chicken coops on pasture, they are moved daily. We are under the recommended number for the size of the coops. They have plenty of food and water, we even added additional to make sure. We gave them a flock block to keep them busy. We have even opened the coops during the day to let them explore within the electric fenced area. They are all also aggressive towards us too, constantly pecking at our ankles and feet when we are in there.

None of this seems to be working. We find 1 dead almost daily. If anyone has any ideas to help it would be greatly appreciated!

(Side note: when we got them the hatchery did give us the option of clipping beaks but we declined thinking there wouldn't be any issues with that.)

Thank you!

 

[FrostRanger]

How big are the coop and run in feet and for how many birds? Can you post a picture of your setup?

 

[nuthatched]

How big is their coops? Diet?
For that many birds, each tractor should be 150 sq', aleast.

 

[aart]

We got a new flock of pullets a few weeks ago

@TheFarmersWife167 How old are these birds, in weeks or months?

the recommended number for the size of the coops

Recommended by whom?

 

[TheFarmersWife167]

How big are the coop and run in feet and for how many birds? Can you post a picture of your setup?

We started with 77 birds. We had a total of 180 sq ft between the 2 mobile chicken tractors.

We were originally not going to let them out into the fenced area but only did out of trial and error for their behavior. There is at least 200 sq ft of run around the coops. Although this did not seem to help and we have found more being picked on and/or dead.

 

[TheFarmersWife167]

How big is their coops? Diet?
For that many birds, each tractor should be 150 sq', aleast.

We have 2 sizes for the coops, they equaled 180 sq ft. Diet is chicken feed from a local feed mill, and they are also on grass.

 

[TheFarmersWife167]

@TheFarmersWife167 How old are these birds, in weeks or months?


Recommended by whom?

We have 2 sizes for the coops, they equaled 180 sq ft. Diet is chicken feed from a local feed mill, and they are also on grass.

@TheFarmersWife167 How old are these birds, in weeks or months?


Recommended by whom?

We followed the recommendation of the company who makes the coop, also following that each bird needs at least 2 sq ft.

 

[Cinnaminute]

I'm not much of an expert, but that doesn't sound like enough space. I keep a mere 20 chickens (full grown) in a run that's 200sqft. My coops are too small, though, so I try not to confine them in there longer than needed (just dark hours). I still end up with some fights and had a girl feather plucked by a bully. And they get out every day for at least 4 hours to free range an entire half acre of land.

Edit: I understand pullets are much smaller, of course. But it does sound like an overcrowding issue mixed with nowhere to go for the victims to avoid the bullies.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

That is for factory farming, where beaks are clipped and birds are only kept a short time. Typical recommendations for birds outside of factory farming is 4 Sq feet in coop, amd 10 Sq feet in runs

 

[The Coop Crew]

The recommended amount of space per bird in a backyard flock is 4 sq ft.
So if my math is correct- 77 x 4 is 308 sq ft. Maybe overcrowding is the problem?