I perfectly love helping out new backyard flock owners . Their excitement and ebullience , coupled with sincere business concern for the snort they raise , make me eager to take them under my backstage , so to speak . I ’m always glad to share my noesis and experience with them and to suffice their questions , regardless of how many times I ’ve heard them in the past .
At our poultry - owners ’ group confluence this past workweek , however , a question I ’ve never heard completely stun me into muteness … and that ’s say a heap !
The entrant flock owner — a unseasoned woman named Kat — seemed hesitant to ask me something but simply had to get her question off her chest . in the beginning , she ’d lovingly spoken of her baby chicks , a sextet of Wyandottes , Orpingtons and Plymouth Rocks she ’d been unable to fend at our local farm - provision store .
She ’d already postulate about Salmonella and handling chicks as well as about the difference between appetiser and raiser . She ’d held back , however , when other new radical member asked about organise nestboxes , estimated point of ballad , and other topic related to old birds .
Finally , Kat blurted out , “ I ’m lamentable , but is there really any power point to this ? I mean , I sleep with my chicks so much , but my mom secernate me that wimp are cannibal so I should n’t count on my chicks lasting to maturity . Is that true ? ”
It was so quiet you could get a line a pinfeather drop . The expression on the great unwashed ’s faces told me they were either stupefied , like me , or they were interested about the same question . Are chicken cannibals ?
The answer is no … and yes .
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No, Chickens Are Not Cannibals
When we hear the password anthropophagus , image of Hannibal Lecter or storybook South Pacific folk lean to crop up into our minds . Our understanding of the term is definitely colored by fabrication . It ’s therefore completely comprehensible that Kat ’s female parent , having read somewhere that chicken can succumb to cannibalism , essay to dissuade her girl from keep backyard poultry .
After all , who wants to afford up their coop just to find bloody - peck birds devilishly feasting on a former flockmate ?
venerate not , kinsfolk : Chickens are not cannibals . Your Houdans will not be hunting each other in the chicken coop or campaign , nor will your Leghorns rest in wait for layers . Yes , there will be pecking - orderliness squabbles and , occasionally , some downright intimidation .
But you’re able to lie assured that your baby biddy will not grow up only to rip each other into shredded Gallus gallus .
Yes, Chickens Are Cannibals
That being said , chicken are indeedomnivoreswho , given the opportunity , will exhaust just about anything . This does not mean they will work on each other when our vertebral column are turned . Butunder negative condition , they may start picking at the combs , feather , toe and vents of lower - ranked birds in the flock .
An open wound or a bleeding injury that result from this picking can serve as an open invitation to the residue of the flock to start physically assaulting the victim … and may result in the harassed fowl ’s death .
It ’s not cannibalism , per se , but chickens can injure or even kill each other this style .
For this ground , always tell an injure poulet from her deal . permit the bird to fully recuperate in a disjoined coop , brooder , pen or even a large cardboard box before return h2 er to her coop . Similarly , immediately take out deceased raspberry before oddity get the good of the respite of the flock .
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Causes of Cannibalism
As long as you wield a healthful life environs for your chickens , with plenty of nutritive feed , clean water , nestboxes , and space to explore and spread their flank , you should not have any worries about cannibalism amongst your flock .
But stay wary of thefollowing conditions , which will cause emphasis and can start your chickens down the road to cannibalism .
Cures for Cannibalism
If you have observed cannibalistic behaviour in your flock , take action as swiftly as possible . Isolate injured birds , and bump off heat lamp or heating plant panels to cool off down the temperature inside the cage .
If you expend unreal firing , switch to lowly - James Watt reddish bulbs or remove the ignition altogether . If your coop is overcrowded — and with chicken math , this is frequently the case when it comes to backyard - flock cannibalism — you may have to rehome some of your birds or build a second henhouse .
supply your chickens with ennui broncobuster such as suet patty , heads of cabbage , scratch lump and shiny strung - up CDs to keep their tending off each other . Do everything you could to control that their aliveness environment is a cocksure , healthy one .
