Putting too many chickens in a coop may cause them to eat each other
© Alamy / Getty / Illustration by Nicholas Forder
It might be hard to imagine chickens as cannibals, but under certain conditions they can quickly turn on each other. The act of eating one another is not a natural behaviour for chickens. However, when these birds are stressed or poorly managed they begin to peck at their own kind. When a bird has been pecked enough that a bleeding wound forms, then more chickens will descend on the wounded. Overcrowding, a lack of food, mixed flocks and slow-feathering chickens can all lead to chicken cannibalism. Also, the inner lining or ‘mucosa’ of a chicken’s vent, which is the opening where eggs fall out, can protrude during egg-laying. The redcoloured tissue can lead to chickens pecking at it.