Please help.chicken pecking/bullying issue

[daisychook]

Hi (will try and keep this short)
we bought our first chooks last July, only started laying this year, so they were quite young, a Welsummer, Cream Legbar and Speckled Sussex - all came from the same place and pen. All was fine, then about 6wks ago the W and CL started picking on the SS - to the extent overnight they pecked a hole in her side that I could literally put my little finger into up to the 2nd knuckle. Ran to vets, who didnt hold out much hope, but have bathed, dressed and packed with wound powder (miracle stuff) and she has absolutely and completely healed. Put her back with W and CL, they started immediately picking on her again. Put her back in isolation, but she is not happy so bought a Maran to go with her. SS now bullied M, so M put in with W and CL (keep up!) and SS still on her own (so one extra chook, no solution to problem). M has laid three eggs and eaten two so another issue. She is now (we think) eating at least one egg a day usually the W, BTW the M doesnt lay. She was a 20 week old when we got her, does this make any difference as the other three were so young? Anyway put SS on own again. So today, both OH and me are in work, SS is in her shed come pen on her own without M (cos I dont want M to eat SS egg) The W and CL are in the normal run (so I can check if they have started egg eating and the M is in the run itself, so she cant eat the W or CL eggs.

What can we do - my gut feeling is to take the Maran back (dont even know if we can do this and I do feel bad, but the situation is now worse than when SS first was ill - we have bullies and egg eating), and to get some banties to go with SS - I absolutely adore her, she is so cute, and has been through so much, I cant part with her as she hasnt done anything wrong.

Until the recent problems, they all lived fine, and laid well, now the eggs are not so prolific, are being eaten and I have three factions in a very very small garden. Argh! No wonder I have gone to the office!!
Joking aside we are really beside ourselves cos we dont know what to do and to think last week, my main concern was the colour of the paint for my chook house. Thank you for any advice)

[MURFE 18]

Hi, Daisychook,sorry to have to tell you this but your egg eatter cannot be cured, best for the pot. if the other chooks see her doing this they will copy her as for the s/s try spraying her with vinegar/ water mix this might cure the problem.or run a pen next to the other 2 but donot let them get at each other for a day or two, see if that helps, all the best.

[daisychook]

Hi
Thank you for your reply. This morning have been on egg watch, awaiting for them to drop from their bottoms. !!
The new Maran laid finally today (first in about two weeks) and I was waiting to see if she would try to eat it before taking it, but unbelieveably it isnt her, its my Welsummer!! So, now I have a real dilemma...

[TPeers]

Oh wow, what a problem! I found my hens 'enjoying' an egg yesterday however I don't think they are egg eaters in the sense that you have - it was a shell-less egg from my speckledy (I think) and so fair game - neither of my hens seemed interested in the egg that was layed this morning (again the speckledy - a tinted egg with no speckles) - my bovens nera seems so far to lay a brown egg.

I cleaned the coop - it was laid at the entrance to the coop rather than in the nest box - and sprayed with disinfectant to destroy the smell. (a bird safe version!)

So... don't know if this is any help, but try to remove/destroy the broken eggs and remove/destroy the smell - that might limit the problem?

I haven't kept hens long - weeks rather than years - so I am happy to be told I am wrong!

Good luck finding a solution

Terry

[daisychook]

Update on egg eaters and bully

Tonight we now have two factions. The Welsummer on her own (so sad) but she is the bully and the eater, and the others all in the shed on a perch made today!!!

The SS who was bullied is only picked on by teh Welsummer, the Cream Legbar has been fine with her, so now it is the main culprit who is on her own.
Need to stop her egg eating, then try to make her less of a cannibal on her penmates, if we cant do that we will keep the two factions separate. This wasnt what we wanted for our chickens, we wanted one pen with a few hens. Not various pens and runs with different gangs!! Still as you know whenever you look at chook books, they are always photographed in lush green lawns, when the reality is they eat it all within days!!

If anyone has any ideas on how to stop egg eating/bullying other than what we are doing please shout!!!
Thanks

[TPeers]

A roll away nest box? I think you can get plans for them.

[yoanbob]

dont think she'll be cured of egg eating, but try and place the her run next to the others so she can still socialize without getting to the others, your only hope is to keep her very occupied, try hanging lettuce up in string bags so she has to jump to get to them, and placing food on the floor for her to scratch, good luck!

[Birdie Wife]

I've got an egg-eater too, she started kicking eggs around to try and break them so I had to take the eggs out of the nestbox as soon as I found them. She hasn't lost her taste for them but I just hope she doesn't teach the others bad habits. If she is really persistent I'm afraid you might have to cull her, I know it's a shame but you just can't break them out of the habit once they've got it. If she was just eating eggs that happened to break, that's one thing, but from the sounds of it she's actually breaking the eggs deliberately, thats the worst case scenario really and you need to do something about it.

Re bullying, I think you can buy little rose-tinted spectacles for the bully (no, I'm serious!!) which stop them going for red spots on the bullied hen.

I'm gathering that it's the same hen eating eggs and bullying the SS? Hmm, sounds like you've got a bad 'un, best for the pot I'd say. And then you'd be back to same number of hens and a happy flock. One hen by itself won't be very happy in the long run, so think of the long-term happiness of all the birds. If you don't want to neck the bird yourself, try and find someone who's done it before, or take her to the vets. Sorry if this sounds heartless, I really do feel for you as you're the one who's cared for each hen and it's not your fault one of them has a bad personality.

[daisychook]

Thank you all for your comments, and I know I think what we need to do. Yes it is the same one, egg eating and bullying - I do feel she is more manic than the others, and has some maybe mental problems (I am sure chickens have them too!) We have put her run next to the others, and today was the first day I left my bullied SS to the mercy of the new Maran and the W partner in crime. Have come home and they are all happy hens. Except the Welsummer who was scoffing the rest of her egg..... I dont know if I can make that decision.

My OH says we will try for a while to get her to lay in the rollaway nest boxes we bought a week , but she wont lay in them yet. We put wood over the shavings and only the nest boxes for her to go into - no avail, she laid on the wood and has broken the egg. It didnt break on the wood, she has pecked a hole in it and eaten it. Very sad.

We are going to persevere with the rollaways for a few weeks, but ultimately we cant keep one egg eating bullying chook (we honestly believe she would have pecked our SS to death) in a run and house, plus the rest in another run in a small as it is city garden!!! If I had a country garden that would be fine!!
Oh dear. At least we know it is definitely this chook, I suppose at least that is some comfort.

Yesterday she actually sat waiting for one of the others to lay, and it was a fight between me and her to get to it first, she was hovering over the CL who was laying, which was a bit spooky.

[yoanbob]

good luck daisychook

[daisychook]

Thank you.

You are all so kind here.

Tracey

[88sophia]

hey guys
Just a little information for you all I am actually doing an assignment at the moment on egg pecking by chickens, one of this tips I have found out from this assignment is that if you put about 2 old golf balls in each of the nests this can discourage egg pecking. As the chickens will peck th golf balls and then they will get nothing in return, this can stop the behaviour. Another useful tip is that if you find a broken egg try putting some mustard into the shell and putting it back, when they try eating it again they will not like the taste and will hopefully (fingers x) stop egg pecking.
Hope these little bits of information have been as useful to you as they have for me
Natalie

[polo]

Good luck with it all. All good advice but sort& trying natalies hints?

[Allotment Nerd]

Hi,

Just a mention on the little egg eaters. The lady I bought my chooks from, Sarah at Happy Chicks, suggest blowing an egg and then syringing in a load of mustard. She says it cures them of wanting to eat the eggs. I don't have an egg eating problem but I must admit Sarahs advice has never been wrong.

[amanville]

Same issue

i had the same issue with the chicken pecking. I went online and did hours worth of research (a little obsessive i know) and found a number of great resources. This one article had some great information. http://www.animalwelfareapproved.org...9/10/TAFS5.pdf finally asked my dad if he had any suggestions (i live on a farm, but he is the real farmer) he told me that they could be bored, and that i should try putting fruits and veggies on the ground in the pen part. Others have said vinegar in the water helps, as does putting salves on the chickens that are being pecked. SHe could also have a nutritional issue, try asking the feed provider if they changed their formula around the time this started, or if you changed feed the new one may not have some of the nutrients she needs. hope this helps. I unfortunately did not disover the solution soon enough and lost my silkie (he was my baby ) and one of my hens. try keeping a journal about them now, i find that it helps identify issues sooner, and their possible causes. The mustard thing really does work, btw.