Stress and Chickens

Stress is a major contributor to ill health in chickens and can also make them more prone to a number of vices such as feather picking, egg eating, comb or vent pecking.

Chickens kept in intensive conditions are constantly subjected to stress which is why farmers see such high mortality rates and have to pay out to keep birds healthy and make them productive. Fortunately, keeping chickens in our back garden isn’t exactly intensive as long as they have a sufficiently large run or are let out of their run regularly to free-range although there are pleanty of other times when chickens can suffer from stress.

In short, stress is best avoided whenever possible and a little bit of care and forethought can dramatically reduce stress in your birds.

So how do we know what stresses chickens? Well, some years ago, there were studies done that measured the stress hormone ‘corticosterone’ of birds in different situations and it is this research that has enabled us to understand the stressors.

Stressors.

As well as intensive conditions causing stress, the other main stressors can seem quite trivial to us.

  1. Handling. This is one of the biggest stressors. Chickens are a prey species so naturally, if caught and picked up, they become stressed. Whilst regular handling is important for health checks, chasing a bird around a run for 5 minutes every time will not help. Try to catch birds in a confined area such as a house quickly and calmly. Hold the wings firmly and then transfer the bird to the holding position with your right hand underneath her, breast in the palm of your hand, fingers holding the tops of the legs. Her head should be underneath your arm so her head is looking behind you. Use your left hand to examine her.
  1. Introducing new chickens. Chickens are flock animals that have a pecking order. It is thought the ancestors to our chickens, the Red Jungle Fowl of South East Asia use the pecking order to assist in their survival. If every bird has her place, when it comes to feeding time, each one can have her turn and they don’t have to spend precious time arguing which may alert predators to their where-abouts. Every hen knows her place in the pecking order and by introducing new birds, the pecking order is upset. No hen knows where she stands and this will cause arguments and considerable stress for days until they have sorted themselves out into a ‘new flock’.
  1. Lack of food or water. This stress is completely avoidable of course but we all have those one off days when we suddenly realise that our birds have run out of water for one reason or another. A leaky water container, frozen water or just a forgetful moment!
  1. Extreme heat. Chickens don’t sweat. To cool down, a chicken must either take on cool water (and excrete more to lose the excess fluids and some heat) or pant which removes heat through the air they exhale. Chickens are much better equipped to deal with the cold and can keep their body temperature up by eating more and trapping air inside their feathers to insulate themselves thermally. Heat will cause chickens to become stressed.
  1. A new environment. This can be taking a bird to a show, getting your birds for the first time or just moving them to a different house or run. Another environmental change that is hard to avoid but causes considerable stress for your birds is when there has been a covering of snow.
  1. Egg laying. This is surprising since this is a natural things that chickens do but egg laying does cause stress on your hens. Giving them a peaceful, private, darkened nest box can help. Try not to disturb hens that are in the process of laying.
  1. Predation. Foxes or other predators visiting the garden on a regular basis are likely to cause stress. In the extreme case, after a fox attack, even though a chicken may survive the wounds inflicted by a fox (he grabs a mouth full of her feathers for example and the chicken escapes), she can still die because of the stress.

Fox-looking-for-chickens

If you can minimise stress, your birds will be less prone to picking up disease which is something we would all like: happy, healthy chickens!

156 Comments

  1. Thanks for that. We never see them pecking each other when they are out and about…or inside the run either, so not sure they are being aggressive. Diet is really carefully prepared, and they have daily access to grass.They get out for a run every day almost, so boredom shouldn’t be a problem.
    We have found the soft-egg laying has stopped – we have been giving them an afternoon treat of mash with fine grit in, and I think that has done the trick, but now she does not lay at all – which actually is preferable to soft eggs, which of course encourages egg-eating!

  2. Ive had my 4 hens for approx 1 year. Always got on together and all laying well. 3 of them started losing their feathers – mostly from their back ends – although some feathers are coming through. They are now all pecking each other, and eating the feathers. I have wormed them, treated them for lice and sprayed the house in case of mites and also sprayed them with anti-pecking spray. They free range most of the day. Any more ideas???

    • Feather picking is a difficult vice to cure once it becomes a habit.

      They can do this for a number of reasons – mainly boredom but also through lack of protein (feathers are about 85% protein which is why they eat them). If they are moulting (which is likely at this time of year), they have to find more protein to produce feathers. This is also the reason they stop laying eggs as these are made up mainly of protein and there isn’t enough for them to produce both feathers and eggs.

      If it is boredom, they are probably kept in a fairly small enclosure and they are probably fairly active forages (Black Rocks are a typical example). Letting them out to free range and forage would be the best bet here. They will have a chance to express natural behaviours and will be more interested in doing this than feather picking.

      Bullying can also be a cause but unlikely from what you describe (they are all at it and bullies normally direct aggression towards the head area).

      • Hi thanks for that. Moulting is a possibility, although they are all still laying as well. Their enclosure is approx 15ft x 30ft made up of 1/2 soil (which they have cleared of vegetation…) and 1/2 gravel which they like to dig in for insects and worms. I supply them with greens every day. The layers pellets I buy are 16% protein. How can I make sure they get enough protein. Would it help if we supplied them with more grass (although they dug up the last lawn…..)

  3. Soft wood chip is great also beak bits for a couple of months will help! Your local breeder/supplier would be able to help you with this.

  4. Hi,I’ve had my 5 chickens since June last year at 12weeks they have got on well but the last two days my columbine is being picked on by all the others, bluebell,speckle, copper black and Sussex, I have 2feeders but have had to put another one in for her,but then when they see her feeding they chase her away,so I have stand by her and keep the others away, any idea why they would be doing this and is there sun thing I do for her.

    • This can sometimes happen to the hen at the lowest end of the pecking order. They will now be establishing this as they mature. All you can do is provide space, multiple feeders and waterers to give her a chance to survive.

      It is usually less noticeable when they have lots of space because they won’t see her feeding as much from a distance and there will be other interesting things to do like foraging that will draw their attention.

  5. A few weeks ago I had a hen killed by a falcon while free ranging. I have been letting them FR for over a years with no problem. Now the hens that witnessed the kill have lost their feathers and stopped laying. I stopped letting them FR and keep them in their run. What if anything can be done to get them past this incident?

    • It can happen, they have gone into a moult because they were stressed.

      I would use ACV in the water (more information on my page about this) as this certainly helps with stress. I would also give additional protein to help them through the moult (feathers are mainly protein). Hard boiled eggs are one source but some people give a handful of dried cat food (which unlike dog food gets its protein source from animals). Strictly speaking, this isn’t allowed though (according to DEFRA).

Leave a Reply to Keeping ChickensCancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.