Need help chickens pecking

[Dana]

Yesterday one of our chickens was being pecked in the butt by the other chickens. It was not pretty and I put her out of her misery. The chickens are all young and one had never layed. So I thought maybe she had layed her first egg and tore something, and the chickens just started picking at it. Then today I find three more that the hens are picking at. They are now bloody but not bad yet. The chickens are Isa Reds, all hens. They are not debeaked can I do that? Will it possibly stop them?  Any other ideas?

[isawlogs]

 You could put those little glasses on them .. sorry dont have the english word for those  :  that'll stop the pecking

[SwampDonkey]

Don't know what to tell ya Dana. They are like turkeys they will pick on a runt/weekling and cannibalize it. I don't remember seeing it happen when I was young, but I was probably too young to comprehend it. We used to stay at a neighbor's who had 2 chicken houses full. ;D That woman had gallon jars full of pickled eggs all over the pantry and kitchen. I remember her selling them and mom would buy from her when we could drive through the farm road  which cut off 6 miles. Also, an old widower less than a mile down the road would sell some. And there is a lady near town that sold some also, a couple of her sons used to work some for dad.

[Coon]

Do the chickens have any gravel to peck at?  Are you giving the chickens any kind of mineral supplements?  Are the chickens starting to molt yet?  it is almost that time of the year especially if it is warming up.  How many chickens do you have in what size of area?  Too crowded and they'll compete for space? 

[thecfarm]

Give them something to do,maybe.Buy some scratch and feed.My chickens love it. Do they have enough room to move around in?I let my outside in a 10x10 area.Throw down hay or straw so they can dig and scratch.I had to take a pair of toe nail clippers and take just a LITTLE BIT of their upper beck.Notice LITTLE BIT,really just enough to take the pinch away.I would only use the clippers for the chickens.This pair has never been back in the house.They can still eat fine.Only take a little bit or they will bleed and than you will be in a mess. As I am told.I did buy some Blu-Kote by Dr. Naylor when I was having trouble.You spray this on the affected area.I only had this problem once.Only lasted about a month.Don't know if this is avaible in your area or not.This just covers the pecked area and does seems to help.Go to a feed or good hardware store and ask.We throw all or our table scraps in to the pen.They just love it.They will really do a job on a turkey carcass.

[wiam]

I had trouble with my layers last summer.  I did the same thing with the toenail clippers.  I got blood on a few but they stopped bleeding pretty soon.  This seemed to stop the picking.

Will

[beenthere]

I thought that chickens were de-beaked using a hot wire of sorts. But that may be on younger ones, but may also be to cauterize the blood vein that is there.

We had chickens in the 50's and used some kind of a stinky coating that we'd paste on the chickens that were getting pecked, and the others apparently didn't like the taste so would quit picking at them. But left alone, the picked-at chicken will suffer a lot at the 'beaks' of most of the other chickens. They all seem to gang up on the few that are getting picked at. The feed store suggestion would likely be where to learn more, but also some web searching would likely turn up some info too.

[wiam]

Beware of info from feed dealers.  They sell stuff. $  I have gotten some pretty useless info from feed dealers.  Talk to hatcheries.  You can buy day old chicks that have been debeaked.  This is done with heat.  On little chicks a red heatlamp is supposed to reduce picking.  I have never had a problem with little ones with what ever lamp.

Will

[Norm]

Once they've got the taste for blood it's hard to break them of it. They will go on to the next weak one till they kill it and so on. Most times we've had this problem it seemed to be caused by keeping too many in too small of an area. It also seems to be caused by them being bored, I like to keep straw or wood chips on the ground and put unground shell corn right in it to give them something to do.

Some breeds seem to be worse for this also, we've got aracunas now and they are the least agressive layer we've rasied. We still get good production and the novelty of the colored eggs.

[scsmith42]

Ditto what Norm said.  We've got about 50 Rhode Islands and a smattering of others, but we allow ours to free range.  If they have lots of room to roam, this seems to minimze the pecking problems.

What breeds do you have an are they enclosed or free ranging?

[Dana]

I have eight chickens and two turkeys in a 14 X 14 chicken coop. In the summer they free range now its winter and we have 2 foot of snow on the ground. The chickens won't go out even if the door is left open. I will try debeeking as was said, and also mix some corn in the straw like Norm said. I seperated the hurt ones out and wont reintroduce  until they are healed.

[thecfarm]

My chickens won't go out unless I spread hay or straw to cover up the white stuff.I shovel out the pen and than it's like a Lural and Hardy movie.They all pile up by the door,if one happens to get pushed out,it goes crazy trying to get back in.When I spread hay or straw,they all try to get out at the same time.I never had much luck with araucanas laying in the winter time.I had a fellow call them seasonal layers.The next town over there is a store selling araucanas eggs for a dollar each.Someone from work asked me about it.Wow!

[SwampDonkey]

Well I can't figure out how Walmart USA can sell them for $0.88/dozen. Can you guys produce eggs that cheap. My grandfather was getting $0.75/dozen 50 years ago. Walmart Canada sells them for $2.65/dozen and our local grocery stores sell them for $2.12/dozen.

[Ernie_Edwards]

SD,

We have had chickens for years. A real orange/yellow yolk is hard to beat.

But when you figure everything in ,I have always told folks our eggs probably cost us $13.00 a dozen.

Of course it dosen't help that Darla has a name for each chicken and is running an old age home for the non producers.

I wouldn't give those $.88 eggs to the dog, they look sick.

Now I've got myself hungry for a fried egg sandwich....gotta go cook

[SwampDonkey]

I here what your saying Ernie. A fresh egg doesn't run all over the frying pan. Not any we've had. That date on the box doesn't mean much, they could have been collected 3 months ago and an egg doesn't keep forever. Some people will keep those store bought eggs in their fridge for months before they are all used.  : Trouble is these days, no one locally can afford to produce eggs any longer, they are all factories. And outfits like Sobeys and Superstore wouldn't buy local anyway. To them, local is anything that can land at the store in 24 hours.

[Dana]

We are getting $2.50 a dozen for our extra eggs. You guys are right about the eggs being different from the factory farm eggs.  Next month we are going to be listed in a regional magazine article (Traverse The Magazine) as a source for farm fresh eggs.

[Norm]

Since we're in farm country away from big metro areas the selling price for a dozen eggs is pretty low. Seems there's always someone in the local spokesman selling them for .50 a dozen. We raise them for our own use and sell enough to pay for the feed, we also feed our table scraps to them. Between them and the dog the compost pile is pretty slim pickings.

The arcanas lay about the same as most brown layers, we have black stars and they seem to be the same in production. We do get some funny questions like what color is the yolk. :D

[Kirk_Allen]

We just upped our egg price to $1.50 dozen and folks dont bat an eye.  We cant keep eggs on hand we have so many folks coming to get them.  I told my wife we need more hens to keep up with the demand. 

Our egg sales pay for feed and put some change in the pocket.  Like norm, we feed them table scraps when we have them and they free range during the day..................which has become an issue when I am cutting lumber.  I am being taken over by chickens at the sawmill.  At any given time I have 5-6 birds under the mill going to town looking for bugs.  They love the grubs we find in the walnut stumps. 

I cant eat eggs on the road any more now that I know what REAL eggs taste like. Makes eating breakfast a new adventure.  More French Toast and pancakes.

[SwampDonkey]

Man, French Toast? You got it too good down there. Now your gonna want some maple syrup and indian bread. :D ;)  8)