Ex battery hens, how long to establish pecking order?

[gettingtherequickly]

Hi all,

I hope someone can help with a bit of advice please, I'm new to chicken keeping and collected 4 ex battery hens 24 hours ago, (looking a bit bedraggled).

They have a coop which was supposed to be big enough for 6-8 hens (3 nesting boxes) and a double sized run.

One of the hens is considerably smaller than the others, and is being picked on by the largest two. (Pecks, but no blood drawn).

I know they have to sort out the hierarchy, but can anyone tell me how long I should leave it before I intervene? (Already sprayed her with anti pek spray this morning).

It's just so hard to watch, she's taken to hiding in the coop.

Hi! No help sorry but I was coming on to ask about a bully chicken too! I had 3 existing ladies and just picked up my 3 batteries on saturday, and one of the old girls is being a real bully to the new girls.

I'm also wondering if you got your girls from the same people? BHWT?
They have this page:
www.bhwt.org.uk/information/merging-establishing-new-flock/

I read something that says you need to leave them to the pecking as they need to establish the order, but as soon as they draw blood you should separate them, as chickens are really drawn to red/blood, and can peck another chicken to death.
Also that if there's one aggressor in particular, you should remove them, not the victim.

Sometimes it takes a couple of days for them to figure out the anti peck spray. I’ve had a few ex battery hens and they’ve been right toughies and always manage to be top hen.

If they don’t stop put the main aggressor in a separate bit. Ideally somewhere she can still see her flock but can’t assert her dominance. Give it a couple of days and when you reintroduce her she’ll be bottom of the pecking order.

I hope you get it sorted. It’s horrible watching one of them get picked on.

Not ex batteries but the pecking order changed amongst mine over 18 months. In the end separating the aggressor into another run so she could see the others but not get to them seemed to help. We had to separate several times, initially a few hours, then a day. In the end I think we kept her physically away from them for about a week because she wasn't getting the message. I didn't want to spray them in anything or do the beak clips or clip the end off any beaks. She simmered down after a long period of separation luckily, we've had about three months of things seemingly being calm anyway!

Thank you so much, we're building another run today so that we can separate the largest if things don't improve (and give them all a bit more space).

Just to give you a bit of hope I got 3 chickens a couple of months ago and the little one was picked on a fair bit in the early stages. The other two would peck her a bit , stick together and she was always on her own and sometimes at night she seemed to be kicked off the perch.

Hard to watch but now pecking order is established it’s pretty harmonious. All three pile into the nest box at the same time for egg laying though take it in turns for the end they like to lay in. Yesterday the big one and the small one were sunbathing next to each other. They are my first chickens and I found it unexpectedly difficult at the start, though I knew it happens .

Thank you post, that gives me hope, I love the little dinosaurs xxx

How are they today ? They are flipping fantastic, really enjoying myself. It was the second time they all laid today, so exciting !

That didn’t make much sense sorry. Meant how are yours doing today gettingthere. The rest was me a bit over overexcited about mine

All hiding from the rain, but the littlest is permanently in the coop at the moment, the larger run will be finished tonight and I've got another feeder and water feeder so she's got plenty to go at without having to run past the bigger girls.
Poor husband has been working all day in the rain to get it ready, he's worried about her as well.

Oh bless her your husband is lovely sorting that. With my very limited chicken knowledge it does sound like separating the largest if things not improving would be sensible. Do you spend much too much time watching chicken TV as I do?!

Hope it's all settled down now they're in the bigger run. If problems continue pull the bullies out, not the bullied. I find it knocks their confidence and takes them down a peg or two, then when you put them back in the mix they're less dominant.

Thank you both, things seem to be improving, the largest can't guard all three feeders and they've got mealworms and corn morning and afternoon, so there's no scarcity of food.
The new run is much better, twice as big as the other one, so they've much more room to space out.
No blood has been drawn and the littlest has started coming out of the coop a bit more frequently.
Hopefully all is good, but if not I can now separate them fairly easily, they can still see each other, but no contact.
8 eggs so far, but I scrambled and fed 3 back this morning on advice from a friend, just for a few weeks until they've grown back their feathers.
Thank you, I appreciate the support.

@Cliveybaby is spot on, let them work it out unless there's blood, because even non-psycho chooks like to peck bloody wounds. Once they start they can't help doing it again and again.

One other thing to do is make sure the bullied one has plenty of places to hide (apart from in the coop) e.g. behind big plant pots. The top hen won't be bothered to search her out everywhere if she can't see her.

One of my girls (now departed) was really vicious to a little newcomer for a few days, and a few months later they were best buddies and loved to dustbathe together! Another one who was really aggressive for the first few days turned out to be the sweetest, gentlest girl ever when she settled.

Not sure about feeding them egg. Some people think it gives them a taste for it and encourages egg eating. Good layers pellets or the ones especially for ex-batts give them all the nutrients they need.

Glad it's going well! It's such fun and you've given them a whole new life.

Such a difference when the sun shines! Chickpea had a mud bath yesterday, so she looks a right state (might need to bath her).
All the combs are turning redder and feathers are growing back.
Gloria (smallest) still spends most of her time in the coop, but great idea about putting a couple of hiding places for her, thank you.
I had my first scrambled eggs this morning (with smoked salmon) absolutely delicious
This has to be one of the friendliest boards!

Here's the coop with the extra run, big enough for 4? We plan on letting them free range when we're around, but that won't be much more than an hour or so a day.

Oh that’s fantastic, your DH has done a great job! Lovely to hear you can see the difference in them already and great you’re getting g eggs.

I’ve spent a lazy morning weighing up pros and cons of attempting to convert a plastic shed we have into a coop. Have lost many hours in the backyard chicken forum. All 3 laid again this morning and are currently eating dandelions. I would really love to have a chicken cam of some sort that my elderly neighbour could log in and watch as she finds it hard to get out much and think she’d enjoy watching their ridiculous antics.

Aw I'm glad they're happier!
After a week of keeping my old 3 and new 3 separate I merged them on friday. The big girls couldn't resist pecking the little girls so I fitted all 3 with bumpa bits. They initially hated it and I almost took them off but decided to leave it one night (put them on about 5pm), and the next day they were fine, have seen them all eat and drink. They're still pecking the little girls if they come too close, but not drawing blood or pulling feathers, and it doesn't seem to hurt them.
They have all been snuggling up at night so not too bad.
The smallest battery hen (called Ivy) is definitely bottom of the pecking order though - the last two nights I've found her under the house rather than in it, and had to put her in!
On the pllus side all three of the little girls are growing new feathers!

That's lovely clivey mine all seems happy today, the combs are turning redder by the day.

They do keep kicking the straw out of the nesting boxes, do some chickens just not like it? I think we've got a shredder at work so I'll try them with shredded paper see if they prefer that...

May I join in!

Love my chocks they really bring so much into your life.

As far as the nesting box straw goes, I have always use horse bedding called Raviera

www.cavierabedding.co.uk/caviera_products/raviera-pro/

Its much easier to clean up and dust free and all my girls over the years have never had a problem with it. A large bag lasts a long time, but I would not recommend using shredded paper at all.

Great news your girls seem to be settling down now and the colour is coming into their combs.

With regards to eggs, if my girls are off colour and need some protein one thing I do give them is boiled eggs mixed with natural yogout (good for their digestive system) and crush the shells into the mixture as well. I have never had a problem with them eating their own eggs, as they never get raw eggs which can encourage them to eat their own/others

Here are my girls today, it's been an awful week of rain but they've been sheltered and seemed happy enough.

Aw lovely!
Update on mine: I left the bumpa bits on for about 3 weeks until I thought the big girls had stopped pecking the little ones. Finally took them off and they were fine.
Now I've had the little girls nearly 2 months, they still have some bald patches but are much fluffier, and loving life in general! They're pretty feisty and friendly lol.

That's a lovely update.
One of mine isn't thriving as much as the others, it's taking longer for her feathers to grow back and she laid an odd egg a few days ago and nothing since (soft shell).
We've added more oystershell into the feeders and some chicken spice.
I had then out in the woods on Saturday, it was sheltered but they basked for a whole and I wonder if she might have over done it.
Keeping my eye on her at the moment.

Yeah one of mine is definitely behind the others... She's the smallest and baldest!
A new issue - because they have bald bits and like sunbathing, the little girls all seem to have sunburn!! Any tips? Should I put suncream on them?

My head chicken recently died. The remaining 3 are trying to establish the new pecking order. 2 of them are picking on the other one and she is hanging out in the nesting box not wanting to get out. I’ve pulled her out of the box for a couple of hours and other 2 chickens peck at her. What should I do to end this? How long does it go on? It’s been a week.