Hi All,
I am new to having chickens and a bit concerned right now. I have 5 buff Orpington pullets that are 5 months old and all just started laying about a month ago. They have been together since they were chicks. In the past couple of weeks I've seen them being aggressive with each other in ways I haven't seen before. There is one chicken in particular, Honey, that I've seen 3 of the others chase, peck or intimidate this week. I thought they were all just picking on her, but yesterday I saw our littlest chicken, who I think is trying to establish herself as top chicken, jump on top of a different chicken and bite her comb. That same chicken jumped on Honey today and bit her. Thankfully I haven't seen any blood or visible injuries. When the aggression happens in front of me I usually say "no" and hold down the offending chicken for about 10 seconds.
The birds have lots of space in their run, a feeder that they can all fit around at the same time, plenty of roosting space, 2 nest boxes, and I take them to our garden to forage 1-2/day for about 30-60 mins total. I changed their feed about a month ago when they started laying and they are all eating it.
I'm not sure what's going on and what (if anything) I should do about it. I noticed the behavior was happening a lot when I sprinkled their "seed treat" in their run and they were competing for it so I stopped doing that yesterday and plan to lay off that for a little while. Today I saw the aggression happen in the garden with no apparent competition so I'm not sure what's causing it.
Could it be that the little chicken asserting herself more to be top chicken is causing the others to need to re-establish themselves too? Is it normal that the chickens just become aggressive? Is intervening ok? Is there something else I should be considering? I have so many questions and would appreciate any insight people may have. Thank you!
I am new to having chickens and a bit concerned right now. I have 5 buff Orpington pullets that are 5 months old and all just started laying about a month ago. They have been together since they were chicks. In the past couple of weeks I've seen them being aggressive with each other in ways I haven't seen before. There is one chicken in particular, Honey, that I've seen 3 of the others chase, peck or intimidate this week. I thought they were all just picking on her, but yesterday I saw our littlest chicken, who I think is trying to establish herself as top chicken, jump on top of a different chicken and bite her comb. That same chicken jumped on Honey today and bit her. Thankfully I haven't seen any blood or visible injuries. When the aggression happens in front of me I usually say "no" and hold down the offending chicken for about 10 seconds.
The birds have lots of space in their run, a feeder that they can all fit around at the same time, plenty of roosting space, 2 nest boxes, and I take them to our garden to forage 1-2/day for about 30-60 mins total. I changed their feed about a month ago when they started laying and they are all eating it.
I'm not sure what's going on and what (if anything) I should do about it. I noticed the behavior was happening a lot when I sprinkled their "seed treat" in their run and they were competing for it so I stopped doing that yesterday and plan to lay off that for a little while. Today I saw the aggression happen in the garden with no apparent competition so I'm not sure what's causing it.
Could it be that the little chicken asserting herself more to be top chicken is causing the others to need to re-establish themselves too? Is it normal that the chickens just become aggressive? Is intervening ok? Is there something else I should be considering? I have so many questions and would appreciate any insight people may have. Thank you!
