It's a dominance thing. She's showing the other hens who's boss. When my Gladys was moving up the pecking order to become top hen, she did this often. She rarely does it now - although she sometimes mounts the boys if she feels the need to assert her authority 🤣
Poor boys! Fortunately I don't have any feather pickers. I do have a hen who will fight and stomp on my two boys for any perceived transgression. I love her, keeps the boys getting too big for their britches 😆
My Ferdy is an absolute pussy - he hasn't been out of the sheltered, covered run or the coop since he started moulting 😂
Everyone else is happily free-ranging. Even Pru and Clara who currently resemble naked necks rather than bantam cochins.
Welcome!
Sounds like you've been having great fun!
I only have 7 chickens (5 hens, 2 roos). Technically one more than our local authority allows.
But...6 of them are bantams so they only count as half a chicken each, right? 😂
Looks very much like cockerels to me! They'll be lovely looking boys when fully grown. Don't feel too bad about having cockerels, the boys have been some of my favourites.
They're all such pretty birds.
Our nice days look like they're over. Just rained practically all week and temps have dipped. Plus I nearly had a nasty accident coming back from the coops due to mud and slippy grass. Let's just say doing the splits is no longer in my repertoire!
Dad was my lavender roo and mom my blue mottled. Not that she played any part in raising them. She rolled the eggs under my black mottled (her sister, Pru) and left everything to her.
Aww! She's just lovely 😍
Here's Penelope, first photo is with her brother, Ferdy:
And here's little Pootle, with her chicken bestie, Posie. Pootle is the ginger one:
Aww, this is so lovely (and sad too - I'm sorry for your loss). And totally relatable. I lost my little Penelope last year to leukemia. From hatching until she went broody for the first time, she bit or pecked me daily. Then she became the sweetest girl. I was heartbroken when she died. Pootle...
Oh no! I know exactly how this is 😆 It's how I ended up having cockerels.
My first two were sold to me as 9wk pullets, a Swedish Flower and a bantam cochin. I had no experience of either breed so wasn't aware of the clues that they might not be girls until one crowed at 11wks and the other at...