Intestines hanging out of chicken, warning very graphic picture.

I feed them dumor 16% layer feed and they get meal worms upon occasion. They free range during the day and are only up at night. The coop wasn’t closed up and there’s a hole in my chicken wire I need to fix asap. This is a picture of my coop, it’s massive so I don’t think space is an issue. I think you’re right though about the prolaspe and then something pulling the intestines out. When this happened to my gray one I only had two other hens at the time. Now I have 8 others so 9
Total. I really want to know what to do differently so this doesn’t happen again. I’m going to start doing calcium supplements and electrolytes in the water. Going to seal up hole in coop and make sure coop is closed each night.

Could this happen as a result of no dominant leader and that’s why they’re bullying each other?My alpha hen died in January and there seems to be no defined leader since then.
They would have established the pecking order within a few days after the head hen died. You may have to watch, but there's a leader there somewhere.

Provide Oyster Shell free choice for your hens. The feed is probably o.k., 16% layer feed is what a lot of folks feed. Not sure about Calcium supplements. Generally the hens *should* get sufficient Calcium from their feed and supplemental oyster shell. When and IF I give a Calcium supplement (usually Calcium Citrate) it's only when a hen is in clear crisis and she only gets it for a short period of time (3-5 days).

If you provide electrolytes, do be sure to provide a water station with plain fresh water too. While electrolytes can be helpful during stressful times (hot weather, an attack, etc.). Imho, they do not need to be provided most of the time.

Prolapse can happen for a number of reasons, a few things come to mind = straining to expel a large egg, dehydration, excess fat in the abdomen (fat takes up room/hard to expel an egg), genetics, poor diet, not enough calcium, constipation...many many things can happen to cause a prolapse.

Nice coop!
 

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