hqueen13
<Insert Snazzy Title Here
Yesterday morning I went into the coop to let the girls out and found a dead chicken. I've only had these birds since November, they were not supposed to be that old, maybe a year, and a friend picked them up from a lady who was part of a co-op but was downsizing for the winter. Their beaks were clipped, and they acted like they didn't get out much and weren't fed many scraps or interesting food bits.
From the beginning one chicken was getting picked on, to the point where she was sleeping outside the coop at night. So I put her in a wire dog crate and that's where she's lived ever since. I've made a few attempted to get her back in with the flock but haven't been successful. Interestingly enough, she also lays the LARGEST eggs of the group. They're supposed to be the same age, but she lays super jumbo eggs. The friend that picked the birds up for me says she's seen chickens lay large eggs from the start, but out of all the chickens I cared for on the farm where I worked (several hundred over a few years) I never saw any that laid eggs this big while they were young. They were always several years old, and getting close to not laying anymore when they did.
So things don't seem to be quite normal with this group anyway, and then yesterday I came in to find a dead chicken (not the one in the cage, either). I told the BF about it and he said when he closed the coop up the night before that there was one bird acting broody, so it must have been her. I fed them shrimp shell scraps a few days before, but I can't see why that would have bothered one bird and not the rest. I also hadn't noticed any other odd behavior up until then.
It's really strange, and I'm not happy about it, but there isn't much to be done about it now. I just wondered if anyone had any thoughts.
We're in the process of building a new coop to move the layers closer to the house (we have to drive to take care of them right now) (and I totally forgot to take pics of the process, sorry! I'll take pics when it's done!), and when we move them I'm going to make one more attempt to get Princess chicken acclimated with the flock since it will be a completely new location. Maybe they'll leave her alone if the territory is completely new to all of them. I can't understand what's different about her that they bother her, either.
From the beginning one chicken was getting picked on, to the point where she was sleeping outside the coop at night. So I put her in a wire dog crate and that's where she's lived ever since. I've made a few attempted to get her back in with the flock but haven't been successful. Interestingly enough, she also lays the LARGEST eggs of the group. They're supposed to be the same age, but she lays super jumbo eggs. The friend that picked the birds up for me says she's seen chickens lay large eggs from the start, but out of all the chickens I cared for on the farm where I worked (several hundred over a few years) I never saw any that laid eggs this big while they were young. They were always several years old, and getting close to not laying anymore when they did.
So things don't seem to be quite normal with this group anyway, and then yesterday I came in to find a dead chicken (not the one in the cage, either). I told the BF about it and he said when he closed the coop up the night before that there was one bird acting broody, so it must have been her. I fed them shrimp shell scraps a few days before, but I can't see why that would have bothered one bird and not the rest. I also hadn't noticed any other odd behavior up until then.
It's really strange, and I'm not happy about it, but there isn't much to be done about it now. I just wondered if anyone had any thoughts.
We're in the process of building a new coop to move the layers closer to the house (we have to drive to take care of them right now) (and I totally forgot to take pics of the process, sorry! I'll take pics when it's done!), and when we move them I'm going to make one more attempt to get Princess chicken acclimated with the flock since it will be a completely new location. Maybe they'll leave her alone if the territory is completely new to all of them. I can't understand what's different about her that they bother her, either.