animalgrl
Songster
- Jun 7, 2015
- 174
- 34
- 109
I have a 38 week old Cream Legbar pullet, a 27 week old EE, and a 27 week old Cuckoo Marans. The only one who has started laying is the EE. I have a small (9 sq ft) house type coop with one roost that is about 34 inches long and the girls have access to a large (135 sq ft) run during the day. I noticed last week that the CL is guarding the coop roost from the other two when they go into the coop at night. She hops up on the roost and if either the EE or the CM get up there, she pecks their feet until they jump down. I put them on the roost, one on either side of her, and she went back and forth trying to make them both get off. If they get up right before it gets too dark for her to bother, or if I put them up on the roost after dark, she lets them sleep there, but otherwise she tries to control the entire roost and last night the other two slept on the floor. We just last week lost our oldest hen, a red sex link, to some kind of reproductive infection. She and the CL would pal around, while the EE and CM are best of friends so I don't know if this is some rearranging of the pecking order type thing, but I think she was probably doing this before the RSL died(because the CL was the only one that ever seemed to sleep on the roost), but I just noticed it recently because the other two have started trying to sleep on the roost. I haven't noticed any bullying or feather picking going on at any other time, in fact, since we lost the RSL the CL just seems to be tagging along with the other two. I guess my question is - should I do anything to try to stop this roost guarding behavior, or just let them work it out amongst themselves? Any advice is appreciated. Thanks.
