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Has any one had this happen or something like it?

Recently we brought 12 chickens from a free commercial operation, we split it with my mother and her partner, 7 for us and 5 for them. Our 7 are in with our others and producing eggs a rapid rate while two of mums have killed the other three, there was apparently some eggs layed by them that didn't harden and I have no idea if this was part of it or if it was something else.

Any thoughts?

Oh noo!!

How horrible for your mum, and for you!

I wish I could help - but I am afraid that other than pulling out a few feathers here and there, my chooks are comparatively buddhist!


I hope someone can come up with an answer.

Bonnie x

sorry,mine have had a good peck at each other till they sorted out who`s boss but never killed one or drew blood,end of october i`m getting 3 ex batts,i believe they can be nasty at first so they are going in a pen by themselves,dont expect i`ll be able to introduce them to the others,i have been told by an experienced chicken owner that if chicks see red they peck and peck at it,so if one of yours had a cut on it ,it has to be removed till it heals or they would peck it to death, maybe that could be what happened?

The more I read these threads, the more convinced I get that I'm a closet vegan

do you think there is any chance the chickens died first and were only pecked by the others?

I agree if any bird is sick or injured the others will shorten its suffering. But 2 onto 3 is very odd. Were they all the same breed? We sadly were dumped with a bantum once when the owner couldn't cope and she was constantly attacked. I must admit I would look further into this. Were the attacks witnessed? Is there another preditor - time to be honest before the other two go the same way....has mum got a beloved pooch that is actually a terrier or a rack russel!!!

The chooks were isolated in a cage before being transfarred to general populace but maybe they had some bleeding from a bad lay or something, two attacks were witnessed and stopped but the chickens were too injurred and died later?

cant really help but just wanted to point out that not all jack russels will attack all that moves
ours get beaten up by the bantams !!

It's not something I have heard of before, but it could be stress related owing to the move?

Sick hens are not easy to spot until the illness is quite progressed. Hens tend to hide visible symptoms from each other (and therefore their owners) so as not to get bullied and shoved down the pecking order by healthy stronger birds.

Blood was mentioned by Shell - hens are attracted to both red and green (hence the bases of most plastic drinkers/feeders being either red or green) and if one spots blood on another bird it is sure to get pecked. Having seen this regularly, it's often safest to isolate a bleeing bird until it's on the mend. I can't think it would explain your folks birds deaths.

How old were the birds?