Dealing with cannibalism ??

[NorthwoodsChick]

One Marans hen ate a feathered toe down to the 2nd joint on my Marans roo while he stood there—I treated it- healed it, then the same hen plus one other egg layer picked the wound open and snacked on the nub again. She’s wearing pinless peepers now, and the egg layer was put in another coop. All was well for 2-3 weeks until yesterday- a different hen of low rank was snacking on the toe nub- the wrap was picked through.
I removed all but 2 hens for the night while I debate what to do, and get advice.
I can easily integrate hens into the other coop which has a dominant roo of a diff breed.
Here’s the catch and the dilemma:
This is a breeding roo for my French BBS copper Marans. I have 3 wk old Marans yet to integrate into a grow out pen within this coop. The goal is all Marans flock, but two of the adult hens now have peepers.
My questions are:
1. Do I put peepers on all of the hens that have tasted from the roo? What if it’s long term?
2. Do I remove the roo, or cull the roo as he doesn’t defend himself? I have a few 4-wk olds in grow out pen to choose from.
3. Cull all hens who have participated and hope the young pullets bred from this pair don’t do the same? This would be 5 hens.
4. Create a roo pen- less ideal as this must be temporary.
My set up: 8x12 coop. Run is 8x24. 26 sf multilevel roost space. Plenty of multilevel clutter in run. There are boredom busters. They free range daily weather permitting, and fed 20% all flock feed which is always available in two separate stations in the run.

TIA

 

[Mrs. K]

Ugh! Sometimes keeping chickens is hard.

I think I would put pin less peepers on all the hens with him for now. Easy and quick and gives you time to consider long term.

I had a rooster that lost his muff and beard, and a lot of the feathers on his neck. He seemed to like it.

Good luck,
Mrs K

 

[NorthwoodsChick]

Ugh! Sometimes keeping chickens is hard.

I think I would put pin less peepers on all the hens with him for now. Easy and quick and gives you time to consider long term.

I had a rooster that lost his muff and beard, and a lot of the feathers on his neck. He seemed to like it.

Good luck,
Mrs K

Thanks. I did put PP on the hens in his coop. I decided to keep one of the cockerels and replace the roo when the younger one gets bigger. I can’t have a roo that can’t defend himself against his own hens.

 

[Perris]

Give them all more protein - real animal protein: meat, fish, dairy, insects. They are eating each other because their bodies are crying out for protein.

 

[Gezellige_Poes]

Thanks. I did put PP on the hens in his coop. I decided to keep one of the cockerels and replace the roo when the younger one gets bigger. I can’t have a roo that can’t defend himself against his own hens.

Second the Peepers For All motion! Once they start pecking, geez, it can indeed become somewhat of a feeding frenzy. I have used peepers with great success. I do pay close attention to the peeper wearers, making sure their nostrils stay clean, and as soon as the offense dies down, in your case, the roo is healed, try giving them a break from the peepers.

Recall a recent "feeding frenzy" I had - I ordered 3 Coturnix hens and 1 Coturnix male from a farm in VT, and I'm in AL, so they had to be shipped to me. The male had been severely pecked during the journey, to the point that he had feather loss around his eyes, deeply inflamed tissue around his eyes, and his little eyes were weeping and nearly shut! The hens were relentless, one in particular. I put them in the same quarantine area, but with a hardware cloth separation. Once the little male was back to normal, I removed the partition and it was as if nothing ever happened. I suspect the breeder kept the males and females separate, then tossed them together with no regard that they may not get along! Not in this case, but I have also used peepers of Coturnix quail in the past, had to cut them way down in size, of course, but it was a grand success, settled everything down nicely.