flock dynamic

I have a New Hampshire Red style Rooster that's just coming up on a year old, I raised him from a chick, but he's tried a few times to flog my partner and recently he's started to try and flog me too, but his spurs aren't sharp thankfully as he's only a year old. Despite these negatives, I have...

One of my hens recently endured a horrible flystrike. She is the one in my flock that won't let me touch her, which has been do-able because she's also very food-driven and I could always coax her back to the coop or trick-grab her if needed, etc. She is (was) always the chubby, greedy one of...

I have a super dominant hen. I have no doubt that if both my roosters died, that this hen Jolene would transform into a rooster to take their place. I raised my flock from chicks- ending up with 12 hens and two roosters. Orpingtons- 3 color variations. Being a new chicken mom, I have found the...

Hello, I'm at my wits end with a really bad chicken bullying and anxiety problem! I have 4 hens, A Sulfock x, an Ancona, an Isa and a very small Andalusian. They were rescue chickens, and when their former owner gave them to us, he said that the Andalusian was "a bit special" - read, bottom of...

Here’s the situation. I have 1 laying adult hen, 9 months old. I also have 4 chicks, 11 weeks old , that I have been slowly introducing over the past month. Everyone is co-habiting, but they are separated by baby gates, both in the run and in the coop at night. There have been minor skirmishes...

Recently one of my hens hatched an egg, and has been raising the chick in the company of our other 2 hens. The chick is now about 6 weeks old, however, I wonder about the flock acceptance of the new arrival. The mother hen has been making the "mothering cluck" before she hatched, but recently...

Hi everyone! We have 13 hens of various breeds at our house and a Silkie rooster. We thought we had a BCM hen but turns out he's a rooster. Would these 2 roosters be ok together or is it best to just sell one?

Hi All ~ I'm new to raising chickens, so I've got a conundrum I need help with from veteran chicken people. I picked out 6 chicks in April, straight run, and ... all 6 are roosters! Pretty disappointing. So, my birds are going on 4 months old. I want chickens primarily for eggs ~ I don't eat...

Good morning everyone. I was an avid user of this site years ago and then my flock died so I haven't visited in a while. I recently got a new flock, but had a sad night last night. This post has a two-part question although one of the parts could probably go into predators. Put my flock to bed...

My friend is moving and giving me her Bourbon Red Tom (He is a few years old). I currently have 9 chickens and 4 ducks who range from 5 to 9 weeks old. How should I go about integrating a Tom into my flock? Also, I would be interested in getting some hens for him, at what age can I introduce...

Hey everyone!! I'm interested in eventually having peafowl and I'm just curious as to what are good gender ratios and if you can have males around each other or if they have to be separated at all times. The idea is to have my entire property fenced in and have all my birds (chickens, turkeys...

Hello, here is my question, I've been hand raising this last batch of chicks, hand fed every day for months. 6 hens 2 roosters, they are now about 6 months old ( give or take a month ) and I have introduced them to my main flock of 10 hens. Normally, I would of re-homed both roosters but my head...

Hello all, we used to have 5 chickens, and 4 chickens died due to Marlek’s disease. We have one chicken now, and we don’t know what to do. She’s lonely, squawks a lot, and we have been advised not to get more, since she’s now a carrier and the disease is in the soil. We tried giving her stuffed...

Hello all, we used to have 5 chickens, and 4 chickens died due to Marlek’s disease. We have one chicken now, and we don’t know what to do. She’s lonely, squawks a lot, and we have been advised not to get more, since she’s now a carrier and the disease is in the soil. We tried giving her stuffed...

TLSS: why are my older cocks letting the youngest mate in front of them like it’s no big deal? So I am very new to having male birds and have managed to get myself all wrapped up in these 3 very cute little Japanese bantams. 2 are 5 months old and have been raised together as day old chicks...

We are planning on getting chicks in the Spring, and everyone wants to pick out their own hen. Can we have a flock with all different breeds without running into any problems? All hens will be large fowl and we won't have Silkies or Polish's.

Today my pasture is much quieter. This morning is the first morning with our my favorite Icelandic Cockerel, "Dirty Bird". Dirty was the very first egg that I ever hatched. He was hours ahead of the rest and so that "bond" that baby birds get when they imprint happened between us. Dirty, was...

I'm a first year chicken owner. I've read many books, websites, forums and facebook pages. I've asked for help more times than I care to admit. Largely I have a happy flock. But I made some errors along the way, one of them quite recently. Everyone knows (even me) that when you remove a bird...

Does anyone have experience with a jealous rooster? What I mean is if I pick anyone up other than him, he appears to get upset. Not to the point of "attack" or injury but he will pace underfoot until I put the other, attention-thief chicken down and then proceeds to peck or pull the offender's...

I'm looking for opinions on adding to my flock. I have 4 9-week-old ducks, 2 pekin and 2 cayuga. I believe the 2 pekin are both female, based on voice sexing, but the 2 cayugas have been so quiet comparatively, I am starting to think neither of them will be female. I was hoping for 3 female and...