Hen mounting another hen...

This has been posted before, but i cannot find any responses that says if this will stop...I know that this is a doninance thing, but will our Jersey Giant hen stop mounting the other girls? We have only seen her mount our Blue Wheaten Ameraucana, but I don't want it to become a problem.

Both of my jersey giants are freaking out...one has gone broody and the other thinks she's a rooster! Sigh...

Quote: Probably because nobody can say for sure. I imagine it could become a problem with a Jersey Giant!

I had production reds who for a while took to mating with my pekin/silky mixes; I think getting a rooster will deal with the problem. In any case I think it's only temporary anyway. Often layer breeds are quite high in testosterone and crow and grow spurs, it's not uncommon. No sure where your Jersey Giant sits in the matter. I assume you're very sure it's a hen? Either way it's unlikely she'll keep going if she is a proper she.

Hens will take on the role of a rooster if there are no roosters present. It may stop it may not. depends on how aggressive she gets. How old are they? If they are young it very well will stop once pecking order has been settled. I usually have all hens and very rarely have a problem with this. One may get a little bossy but not for long.

I have had a few hens who did this until I got a rooster. If I hadn't gotten a rooster, I think they would have continued the behavior (they were older hens who had always lived in all-female groups). Don't worry, she won't hurt the other hens, she's just letting them know that she's in charge. It does mean that you should be careful about adding new females to the flock as your dominant hen may get overly aggressive with them.

We had to get rid of our rooster for OVER mating. He was tearing up the girls, this was in March and their feathers are still not growing back. One is completely bald on her bad from him. So hopefully Blackbird will not be as rough at least!!

Choco Maran said:

Hens will take on the role of a rooster if there are no roosters present. It may stop it may not. depends on how aggressive she gets. How old are they? If they are young it very well will stop once pecking order has been settled. I usually have all hens and very rarely have a problem with this. One may get a little bossy but not for long.

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She is a year, we got our first 8 chicks last April, 2 Jersey Giants, 2 Ameraucanas, 2 RIR, 2 Light Brahmas (one of which turned out to be the rooster we had to get rid of). We just added 6 more pullets and this hen seems to be OK with them, it's the OTHER Jersey Giant that picks on the babies! The 7 hens have seemingly been happy since Larry left the flock. We only started noticing it this past weekend, maybe they are board because we haven't been able to let them out to free range as much recently because we had to fence in our vegetable gardens that they were trashing! It is now fenced and they can come out to play.

Quote: I call it either a clumsy, careless or nasty rooster, or layer-breed problems with rough and weak, low-protein feathers. None of all the mix breeds I've kept have ever been 'over-mated' despite me running a ratio of roosters that is often 50:50 with the hens; (I eat the cockerels is why, and I believe happy healthy meat is best for us). Some roosters are nasty enough to deliberately rip feathers out whenever they mate; also spur wounds are not a sign of good rooster. Accidents happen once or twice sometimes but they don't keep happening and still remain true accidents.

This 'over-mating' problem people speak of doesn't seem to happen with non purebred layers or layers who aren't kept on layer feeds. I would guess it's due to the hens and the feeds being developed to put almost all available protein intake into the eggs rather than building strong feathers and good muscle. It stopped happening to my purebred layer reds once I took them off the layer feed they'd been raised on. A nasty rooster will make a mess of the girls and ignore their complaints and cries of pain; this is a bad attitude, not worth breeding in my opinion. You can have giant roosters who you can trust with your smallest hens, but also a tiny bantam rooster, if nasty, can make a mess of your biggest hens. It's a matter of his attitude.

Good information, so we can take the girls off of the layer feed? What feed is recommended for an all around healthy bird?

Layer breeds like production reds are intensively bred on refined artificial diets and can only lay that many eggs a year on that diet, or a very high protein diet, but their own needs aren't being met, as the rough feathers, early cessation of laying, usually early death, and terrible moulting shows. Yes, some of it has its basis in genetics but it's amazing how much of it changes and vanishes on a kinder diet. If you put them on a lower protein or healthier diet a lot of them will stop laying as frequently and go into serious regeneration. They'll end up with shiny and strong feathers, their eggs will have that gloss and strength and rich colored yolk, with a milder taste, they'll keep laying for longer, and if you plan to eat the bird it'll be of more benefit to you. I'm personally happier to know that the eggs and flesh are healthier for me, I don't care about each bird being super-reliable in egg laying; I keep mix-breed and mongrel dual-purpose different aged birds so there's never a shortage of eggs or edible chooks no matter the season.

My diet, starting out, was far from perfect, but has worked very well for me. The most recent changes are of moving onto a completely organic diet but initially it wasn't organic and the flocks were exemplary despite that. Anyways I started with coarse grain mix (corn, red sorghum, wheat/barley, black sunflower seeds) and would give them about a clove of raw minced garlic each per day, and a pinch of granulated kelp. I fed them back their shells and of course gave shell grits. For protein and other nutrients I'd give copra, bran, rolled oats, millet, raw milk, etc. Also I'd ad-lib give random stuff like veggie and fruit scraps, apples, raw onion, dried herbs, tabasco sauce on wholemeal bread sometimes to get any worms that might be there despite the garlic (though I've never had a problem with worms or lice/mites/coccidiosis/respiratory infections as the constant garlic prevents that). Also honey and raw cow milk (lived on a farm so both were free/affordable) and let them freerange in forest and paddock. The diet varied a lot depending on the season and their needs but that's basically it. Most of those ingredients are random additives rather than staples. I also gave apple cider vinegar.

I think the three most important aspects of all that are: raw garlic as a staple, kelp as a staple, and free ranging. But you could easily add fermented feed and ACV into the most important list. Since I'd mix it all together in a pot with some water or milk to make the kelp stick to the feeds I was accidentally making fermented feed, which is great for them. Now I know... lol. Used to try to stop them eating old soaked grains in case of mold. No need, it turned out. They deliberately buried their feed and left it to ferment further, in fact. They knew. I did a little research and set up a deep litter composting system for them in their main coops as cleaning it out so often made them sick, as strange as it sounds. But I can't vouch for the bacteria and natural microorganisms where you live so you may want to see if that's worked for anyone near you. Basically I think if you've got a naturally composting forest floor anywhere near you it should work. Lime is good a couple of times a year as the composting gets started. Getting everything started and settled into a healthy balance is the initial challenge, but once it is, the healthy bacteria and microorganisms and fungi will control most of your disease, mold and parasite problems.

I certainly spent more on them than the standard pellets and grain mix but my birds never had the problems that come with that diet. I bring in outside birds who were raised on that diet for years, put them on the diet I feed mine and watch the transformation. Though they were healthy by most standards in the first place, they end up so much better. We originally got the chooks for our health's sake as there are many health issues in my family, so any goodness put into the birds came right back to us via eggs and flesh and this was of great benefit to the neediest among my family. No artificial antibiotics or drugs could be used due to some sensitivities in some family members so I had to learn how to do it the natural way. I can honestly say it's been lifesaving and it's now a way of life for us. Whatever your choices are and whatever you find works for you, I wish you and yours all the best.

That you very much for all of that information! We are still fairly new to chicks and will have to try some new things and see how they heal up. We do clean out our fridge for them all the time and there are very few things that they don't eat!!