liz_s
Songster
Hi y'all! It's been a long time since I've posted! I apologize for the length, but I'm hoping that all the info will help with suggestions.
Some background: we have 3 chickens. Myrtle is from our original flock of 3 (the other 2 passed away, we lost Toki a few months ago). BBG was adopted from a coworker a year or so ago, and came in as the ALPHA. Like, she wasn't messing around. She beat the Toki and Myrtle up and established herself. BBG never really got along with Myrtle, who has always been a zeta. When Toki passed away, we only had the 2 chickens for a few months. Myrtle and BBG became friends.
A few months ago we adopted Pidgey. She is about half the size of the other girls. Myrtle and BBG immediately started picking on her, and since she's so small, it was worrisome. At one point BBG hurt her to the point of bleeding. So she lived up with us on our back porch for the most part. About a month ago, when the weather warmed up finally, we started putting Pidge into the coop after the other girls were in there and it was dark. In the mornings Pidge would haul tail out of there to get away. Slowly, though, things seem to be getting better. Pidge hangs out with the other girls during the day, and there's only a bit of trouble with Myrtle, and usually when treats are involve. Pidge now even goes in the coop by herself at night!
So here's the weirdness: Pidge still sleeps in the nest box, instead of on the roost. I kind of think the other girls wouldn't let her up there, but I'm not sure. Lately BBG is doing something odd. Since Pidgey only sleeps in the nestbox, lately if we peek in there at night, BBG is standing in the nestbox right next to Pidgey. I can't tell if BBG is protecting Pidgey, if she's being aggressive, or if she wants to roost with Pidgey, and since Pidgey can't go up on the roost she comes down to her. When I just looked, it doesn't seem like BBG's being aggressive. It just looks like that's where she's sleeping. I keep hearing sounds like someone jumping down from the roost, but not quite as loud of a landing thump, so I don't know what the heck that is. Also, we can't find any of BBG's eggs (she's the only one laying).
Any thoughts? Sorry for the huge amount of text- thanks for reading if you got this far!
Some background: we have 3 chickens. Myrtle is from our original flock of 3 (the other 2 passed away, we lost Toki a few months ago). BBG was adopted from a coworker a year or so ago, and came in as the ALPHA. Like, she wasn't messing around. She beat the Toki and Myrtle up and established herself. BBG never really got along with Myrtle, who has always been a zeta. When Toki passed away, we only had the 2 chickens for a few months. Myrtle and BBG became friends.
A few months ago we adopted Pidgey. She is about half the size of the other girls. Myrtle and BBG immediately started picking on her, and since she's so small, it was worrisome. At one point BBG hurt her to the point of bleeding. So she lived up with us on our back porch for the most part. About a month ago, when the weather warmed up finally, we started putting Pidge into the coop after the other girls were in there and it was dark. In the mornings Pidge would haul tail out of there to get away. Slowly, though, things seem to be getting better. Pidge hangs out with the other girls during the day, and there's only a bit of trouble with Myrtle, and usually when treats are involve. Pidge now even goes in the coop by herself at night!
So here's the weirdness: Pidge still sleeps in the nest box, instead of on the roost. I kind of think the other girls wouldn't let her up there, but I'm not sure. Lately BBG is doing something odd. Since Pidgey only sleeps in the nestbox, lately if we peek in there at night, BBG is standing in the nestbox right next to Pidgey. I can't tell if BBG is protecting Pidgey, if she's being aggressive, or if she wants to roost with Pidgey, and since Pidgey can't go up on the roost she comes down to her. When I just looked, it doesn't seem like BBG's being aggressive. It just looks like that's where she's sleeping. I keep hearing sounds like someone jumping down from the roost, but not quite as loud of a landing thump, so I don't know what the heck that is. Also, we can't find any of BBG's eggs (she's the only one laying).
Any thoughts? Sorry for the huge amount of text- thanks for reading if you got this far!