1 Bully chicken in the coop at night

[MotherofChickensUK]

hi guys, hoping for some help, we introduced 4 Gingernut rangers to our flock of now 5 hybrid hens 2 months ago, there was some chasing off of the newbies initially but nothing too bad, the only issue we have is our Speckledy hen is really mean in the coop at night, everyone comes in roosts gets settled then she comes in and throws the new Gingernuts off the roost, we have cameras in the coop, I’ve been going opening the coop and putting Speckledy in a small dog crate in the coop, the others then all roost quite happily. What I want to know is, do we just persist with this? Will she get bored eventually and stop doing it? It’s a little frustrating having to extract and insert her in a cage every night

 

[Folly's place]

She may give this up, or continue, only she knows the answer! Is she bossy all day too? If yes, maybe moving her to an out of sight location for a week or three, then letting her move back, might reset the pecking order a bit.
How big is your coop? How many feet of roosts? This might be a space issue, something that will need to be addressed. Can you add another roost? Post some pictures of your coop, maybe we all can help with design.
Mary

 

[MotherofChickensUK]

Hi Mary, Thank you for responding, I’ve attached a picture of the coop and inside the coop right now, it’s dark here, we have 9 hens in total, typically the oldies roost high on the other side and the Newbies roost together on the lower roost on the other side, Speckledy goes up to the high roost, but as soon as the young ones come in and roost opposite, she climbs down and throws them off! Once I put her in the cage everyone settles. We were wondering about separating Speckledy for a while, but I feel mean doing that to her she is a bit bossy during the day, when she was broody she chased our dogs!

 

[SueT]

Improvising roost dividers can help a lot with roosting issues. The chickens seem to appreciate having their own private space. I've used wood, feed bags, even cardboard.

 

[sourland]

Roost dividers = chicken social distancing.

 

[MotherofChickensUK]

Thank you Sue, we’ve talked about dividers, although I think she’s that much of a bully, she’d probably just jump down and go round to the other side, jump up and throw them off, but we can try though ...

 

[ackie]

More separate roost space and dividers would be my first try.

 

[EmtheFishLady]

Have you tried scolding her soundly? Or putting her through a class about sharing and caring?

In all seriousness though, adding another roost area may help.

 

[Folly's place]

Maybe those roost dividers will help, try that. And separating her for a couple of weeks isn't a bad idea, if it works. Sometimes rehoming a bully is best, if things are really bad, and the entire flock is stressed. This might just be a temporary problem, we hope.
Mary

 

[MotherofChickensUK]

Thanks everyone we’ll try that