Cannibal chickens! Help!

[WillowHens]

Hi all,

We have had six chickens, three buff orpingtons and three barred rocks, for over a year without any problems. No fighting at all! They live(d) happily in a 3x10 coop with a fenced outdoor area measuring about 9x14, which though denuded of any vegetation, had some blocks, stumps, and thick branches for them to roost on and dig around.

Then one day we found a dead chicken, that appeared to have passed (or dropped during the struggle) an organ that appeared to be a hybrid of an intestine and a pine cone. It was all muddy so it was hard to get a good look at the details. The hens had pecked the back-side of the dead hen into a wet mess... we quickly removed the hen. Then the next day, we found two more dead hens, this time more badly torn apart. On both occasions, feathers were EVERYWHERE indicating a big struggle of some sort. There was no sign of entry by a predator either. We originally thought the first one died of the heat (it has been 98 degrees here for a week now) or by passing that organ, but the fact there were feathers everywhere implied a fight, not a death followed by picking.

We feed them with high protein layer food in pellet form, with handfuls of grass when we cut the lawn, and we give them occasional treats like apples and veggies, so I don’t know if it was a deficiency issue. We also gave them crushed shells into their food, but they seemed to ignore this and just eat the pellets. If it is some sort of deficiency, I would love to know what to do differently!

One thing I am wondering - they began eating their eggs a few months back, starting with just one here and there. In the week before the killings, the egg eating ramped up dramatically, so that we were only getting two eggs per day. They were eating three or four each day. Could their taste for eggs have developed into a taste for chicken?

We have a second young flock of hens we are raising in another pen - they are about 10 weeks old now. If we can figure out what caused the first batch of hens to become killers, I want to try to stop that from happening ever again. And I’m not going to mix the remainder of the first bunch with the young ones - no telling what would happen then.

Thanks for any insight into what may have caused this sudden turn of events!

 

[rachlore]

That sounds bad, I would keep a very careful eye on them.

 

[WillowHens]

We are.. so far the remaining three adults are still alive and acting like nothing happened. I'm still surprised at this sudden turn of events and would love to know how to prevent it in the future.

 

[LittleRedHen13]

Hey Willow,

This is an old-time cure that sounds bizarre but usually works. Place a hand-sized piece of fatback on some stiff wire ( a straightened wire coat hanger works great) and place it in your chicken's yard. Make a small curl in one end of the hanger to hold the fatback in place, slide the fatback down onto it, then stick the other end deeply into the ground. Bend the hanger over low enough for your girls to have access to the fatback, and they'll usually peck at that instead of each other! Now if you're not a southern girl - fatback is a chunk of pork, kind of like bacon, with a hard rind (skin) on one side. You can find it in the meat section of grocery stores - it's often used to season food, mostly green beans or greens. I really hope this works for your girls, it sounds like you've been taking excellent care of them and I'm sure you've gotten attached to them. The egg eating thing sounds like a protein deficiency, and even though you're feeding high protein pellets there may be some form of protein they're missing which will hopefully be provided by the pork. Good luck!

 

[jpcode]

I suspect rats. Make sure your coop is supper tight and check the entire floor run area for tunnels. When I was a kid our coop was attached to the barn and there was a colony of rats the size small cats. The rats started eating eggs, we blamed the chickens, and they would wound or kill a chicken and the others would finish her off.

 

[WillowHens]

We can try that fatback idea, and see if that settles things. We now have only two adults left, however, so we may have reached a parity of the powers. Another one was killed last night, and was more...consumed... than the others. It's like with each death, the chickens are moving from experimentation/curiosity killing to a more systematic eating. And I do know it's the chickens doing the eating, based on multiple chicken droppings in their roosting ledges with undigested meat.

And the rats suggestion is interesting. I'll have to look around and see if there are any signs of entry. I did look earlier but never saw anything, but rats can squeeze through small spots. I've never seen rats, however, around our place. We have some field mice in the barn but that's about it.

Could the rapid increase in the egg eating in the week or two before the first death mean that the chickens developed a taste for food other than their feed, then moved on to eating each other? I'm wondering if we had culled the suspected egg-eaters (we saw a few with egg on their face... literally) this may not have happened.

If it is a protein deficiency, is there an additive we could put into their feed, other than crushed shells? (They ignored them). Also, their eggs have always been strong, which is why I never thought they had a protein deficiency. Are there any other signs of deficiency to look out for?

Thank you all!

 

[WillowHens]

One other thing: all the dead birds were discovered about 2 - 3 hours after sunrise, meaning the killing either took place at night or soon after they woke up. I wonder if some outside influence is to blame (rats, for instance) it would be some sort of nocturnal creature. Are rats nocturnal?

 

[farmer boy]

with some chickens they do go cannibal but only once but just killing and eating a chicken but never again or it could be stress .. do you know of battery hens ?? there are 6 stuck in a cage and when they get stressed they take it out on the other chickens and killing them but not eating them ... the egg thing can happen with any chicken ... if you herd of ee chickens they are a egg eater ... my hens and younger ones are nice and they never attack each other unless if the older hen wants the younger ones food ... but mine are like that because they go outside and eat bugs and grass go foraging for stuff so that makes the eggs better for you and makes the chickens healthy to

 

[farmer boy]

rats are like both but they can do stuff at night if they are wild i have a pet rat he is fat and lazy so he sleeps a lot but i might be wrong u am more of a chicken guy then a rat guy

 

[Nicole01]

I don't think it's your own flock killing each other. I have cannibal chickens in my flock(once one starts, more follow) and the most they've done is peck a wound in another's back. I've made saddle pads for them. I do have a bully in the group, but it is too hot to do anything about her. Right now, she is picking on one hen, they fight all the time. The one she's picking on will stand her ground. As soon as the weather cool, she gets a saddle and turtle neck on.

I bet you have a predator near by. A raccoon, weasel, mink, rat, ect.. Make sure your coop has no holes. Weasels can get into a 1" gap. We use hardware cloth 1/2" to cover any holes and our run. Good luck. I'd suspect a weasel or rat that's attack your flock.