Wyandotte attacking Sussex again!!!

[Sue]

I don't understand what is going on here! I thought my problem with the silver laced wyandotte attacking the buff sussex has stopped. For the last 2 weeks they have been together all the time, unsupervised and sleeping in the house together. All was well until 2 days ago! I went down to let them out of their run into the main run at 6.30am (they have an automatic pop hole so had been out of the house in the inside run since first light) and the sussex had all the feathers along her back plucked out, right from where the wings meet at the top of her back, all the way down to where she had been injured before. There was only a very small wound this time luckily. It must be the wyandotte as not of the others are interested in her at all.

Why is this happening? Everything was fine, why would she start doing this again? It also happened overnight, which surprises me, because I thought they were calm and settled during the night. It may have happened first thing after they came out of the house as they must have been out for about an hour ~(not sure what time it gets light now).

I have had to go out and buy a small hen house to put in the outside run and my husband is in the process of building more fencing to put up a divide so that they can all see each other, but the wyandotte can't get to the sussex. I have put the sussex with the speckled sussex as they are both calm birds and the speckled isn't interested in hurting her. She buff sussex had settled really well in with the rest of the flock, was more relaxed and happier and had started laying every day. Now she is going to have to be upset again and separated. I have to say I'm about at the end of my tether regarding all this! The person I got them from is not any help at all, saying he could find a farmer near him who would take her off my hands, but I wouldn't get anything for her (paid £45) and I wouldn't want anything bad to happen to her, she is quite a character, very funny and also very easy to handle. She's just uncontrollable as far as the sussex is concerned for some reason!

Any one else ever had a hen with this sort of problem? Any suggestions about what I should do?

 

[foxy]

Sometimes they do pick feathers at night, or first thing in the morning before being let out. It does sound like a nasty habit has developed, and when this happens the habit is notoriously diffucult to break. It may well be just the one hen feather pecking, mind you it doesn't take long before the others catch on.

In this case I would consider trying a "beak bit" or another design are "beak bumpers" both I have heard very good reports on, and are very cheap. One supplier is the Domest Fowl Trust.

http://www.domesticfowltrust.co.uk/products/info_apb.html

Other causes or contributing factors of feather pecking apart from establishing the natural hiearchy, are boredom, inabilty to scratch, and possibly it has been suggested a lack of protein.

The other option would be to rehome the bullied hen somewhere where she will get some peace and quiet.

Good luck with your situation, sounds very frustrating as well as upsetting for you x

 

[Chuck]

I did say very early on when you had problems with these two that this was behaviour outside the normal settling in process. This is why the heplful advice hasn't worked and you've been very unlucky to run into this situation. Clearly the (very expensive) Wyandotte has it in for this particular hen and it does happen very occasionally. When you've got space they can just be separated but it's difficult when space is limited. It's clear these two must be kept apart to prevent further damage to the Buff Sussex.

 

[Chuck]

If you have still got both chickens, how are they when you let them out in the garden ? It's usually a good time to integrate hens even if they have to go back to their own quarters after being out.

 

[Sue]

I tried this the other day and it ended up in a bull blown scrap! The sussex had her comb bloodied by the wyandotte and I had to separate them. I thought they would be more interested in exploring than each other, but obviously not. This is the first time the wyandotte has actually attacked her. It has always just been the pecking on her back before.

 

[Chuck]

This really is odd but I have had it a couple of times over the years - but there are a few people I wouldn't want to share a house with either !