Attack on Child

[XanderWiFi]

@DaphneNL that is my thinking but we will see. Now that my wife says she may have been challenging my 2 year old and herself, stopping when my wife stepped between them, I am not so sure. She nipped my leg the other day but I did not really think anything of it because I have red mosquito bites. In the past she nipped my eye ball from my shoulder after flying up there. Each of these times there was no aggressive movements and she could have hurt me a lot more than what she did. I read more inquisitiveness than anything. The attack I witnessed on my son came after he was obnoxiously waving his hand near her head, she went at him once and called it quits when she could have kept at it. Time will tell.

 

[SimplyLivinthatFarmLife]

The other day, Mohawk, our brabanter that is our gentlest, friendliest and most docile girl apparently attacked my 7 year old son when he let them out the other morning. This completely baffled me as she allows our 2 year old and just about anyone else to pick her up and follows me around as my pen buddy as I do chores. The most aggressive thing she has done to me is peck my eye when atop my shoulder and that didn't even leave a visible mark immediately or after.

Getting the story secondhand and not witnessing the event: my son apparently let them out wearing flip flops and she pecked his toe then proceeded to chase him out attacking his legs. When pushing for further details it turns out she pecked his toe, he THEN thought it was a good idea to toss a couple twigs from the run at her, and then she chased him out. Mohawk apparently gives zero effs when getting messed with lol. I had to set up an experiment to see for myself.

To test the behavior of the bird, get my now scared son to overcome his fears, and overall just see how they interacted I instructed him to go out and pick mohawk up and give her some pets to make friends. Show her he is not just a bully. Tentatively, he entered the run. The girls basically ignore or mob depending on if they think food is in hand. This time it was ignore. He crept up to her. Frankly, I'm surprised she did not run or attack because his scared creeping up appeared more akin to stalking. He bent down, picked her up, pet pet pet, put down all good. "Must've been a freak incident" I thought to myself. He then proceeded to stick his hand down and do a little "shoo shoo" motion about 8 inches from her head and turned to walk away. IT WAS ON! Mohawk crossed the five feet he had walked away and rooster scratched/pecked the back of his leg once and left him alone. My son was sad. Clearly, Mohawk will not tolerate insolent children haha. Pure educational moment to teach the kid to respect the animals, not be intimidated by them, but don't give them a reason to become aggressive.

Me and mohawk remain best buds. She gets the prime pickings of snacks and knows to hit me up after the bulk has been dropped to get an exclusive treat. Overall, I have been surprised by increasing aggression within the flock surrounding food. My best assumption is as the 6 new girls assimilate it is disrupting the pecking order requiring order to be put down to those who were already assimilated and aware of the order. I heard a squawk and watcher my EE almost sumo pin our other brabanter Storm, and watched Storm's neck get a pinch and rip from Blue Leg one of the leghorns (also an adept japanese beetle hunter).

Any other theories for behavior I may be missing? Open to all ideas. If not, enjoy the story of young children learning important lessons of animal care and respect

Funny story! Thanks for sharing.

 

[SimplyLivinthatFarmLife]

I don't wear flipflops outside. I believe the chickens think that my toes are tasty bugs or something. YOur chickens might be chasing toes around thinking they are treats.

Wore flip flops once and learned a lesson quickly...no more flip flops with the girls or any of the other animals for that matter.

 

[XanderWiFi]

lol yep them toes look like little grubs.

I should also reiterate that whatever is going on, aggression seems to have increased across the board in all the girls. More shows of dominance to one another etc. Nothing except this against us though. My thought remains that as the young new chickens grow older they will be asserting themselves more and more causing disruption to the pecking order.

 

[Birdsong 82]

Doesn’t cause disruption in a bad way always. I noticed that my older birds always stay at the top. They may try assert themselves as they grow but it gets worked out amongst themselves but not usually that aggressive. Nipping at ties and shoelaces is normal but not frequent attacks. I have separated my New Hampshire’s a couple times to sit in jail ( mini coop) for a couple days for attacking the others. Seemed to knock the down a notch. But don’t know if that works with aggression towards humans

 

[aart]

The attack I witnessed on my son came after he was obnoxiously waving his hand near her head, she went at him once and called it quits when she could have kept at it.

Oh, Well then!......serves him right, eh?

I should also reiterate that whatever is going on, aggression seems to have increased across the board in all the girls. More shows of dominance to one another etc. Nothing except this against us though. My thought remains that as the young new chickens grow older they will be asserting themselves more and more causing disruption to the pecking order.

Agrees. How old are the chicks now? They can get testy as 'teens'.
Also you mentioned seeing a lot of feathers around...these could be from the chicks going thru a juvenile molt......or could be one of your adults going into an early molt.

 

[MissChick@dee]

There is such a thing as a true Alfa female who will display Roo behavior hence the mith that chickens can change sex. I had a barredrockX that was my Baby! After dealing with juvenile Roos and all the injuries they caused my hens I was finally happy with just girls. Until 8 yes 8 months later I heard a crow. Long story short my baby became aggressive and kept attacking and it only got worse from there. I tried everything, belive me. I can’t cull my birds but a friend of mine could. I m still heartbroken.

 

[XanderWiFi]

@aart they should be about 4 months old now. My thoughts exactly on his behavior.

Took the kid out today. Had a chat about posture, chicken pecking order and "walking through" the birds if they cluster looking for snacks. He then practiced this and picked Mohawk up as well as some of the other girls and football carried them for a bit. Emphasized the importance of holding them until they stopped trying to escape to show them he would not hurt them, but he was in charge. We then raked and shoveled the run to make earth piles for them to dig through. Not a single issue, peck or attack. All was well.

 

[aart]

Took the kid out today. Had a chat about posture, chicken pecking order and "walking through" the birds if they cluster looking for snacks. He then practiced this and picked Mohawk up as well as some of the other girls and football carried them for a bit. Emphasized the importance of holding them until they stopped trying to escape to show them he would not hurt them, but he was in charge. We then raked and shoveled the run to make earth piles for them to dig through. Not a single issue, peck or attack. All was well.

Excellent...good job Dad/Coach!
Hopefully he learned a life long lesson of 'action and reaction' when dealing with behaviors and live animals.

 

[harmonymw]

With five kids here, I pretty much always blame the kids for anything that goes wrong with any animal.

Funny story: my 9yo is pretty good about collecting eggs, but she’s been too scared to pull from under a broody, despite our hens being ultra-tame. I finally talked her into it yesterday and explained that I have never once been pecked by any of our birds, even when collecting from underneath. She heads into the coop and about 30 seconds later screams “YOU’RE A FREAKING LIARRRRRR!!!” and runs across the yard and into the house.

I guess the hen didn’t appreciate those little hands in her nest.