So happy I found this thread! It was a great read and I learned a lot. Thank you chooks.
If you wouldn't mind, I'd love to hear more of your take on aggressive hens.
Recently, one of my hens went broody. I put her in her own pen away from the flock so she could brood in peace.
I put eggs under her and would candle them regularly. When I reached under her she would look at me and fluff up and say "Ourrrrp"
She would turn and sort of peck me, but it was very half-hearted, and seemed more like she was trying to figure out what was touching her.
The only time she REALLY pecked me was the night I looked under her butt feathers to see an adorable little yellow face peeking out at me.
That was when she seemed to become serious.
She has two babies now that are a few weeks old.
If I enter the pen and I don't have food or anything to offer, I can sort of see it in her eyes, that she's about to be mean.
She has pecked me since and was quite serious about it, holding on and doing the head twists and hitting me with her legs, but she has never shown this behavior before having her babies.
Do you think this behavior is temporary and expected?
Even though she tells her babies to eat out of my hands?
Thanks!
Sorry, but in my experience that's not to be tolerated. Violence and abuse whether from males or females is strongly hereditary. I initially used to tolerate very gentle pecks from both males and females when they were sitting on eggs (yes, some of my roosters had the habit of accompanying their girlfriends onto the nests while eggs were laid and they too tried to sit on eggs)... But in my experience it only degenerates, and no matter the reasons, it should not be bred on.
The birds you allow to attack you, however gently at first, and for whatever reason, will either escalate down the track (almost all do) or produce offspring who seem to have simply hatched with the degree of aggression already a notch higher than their parents.
Some of my hens have spurs too, but even hens who don't, I wouldn't tolerate an attack from. Their sons will also likely have the same mentality. Even a hen can take your vision and they are pretty prone to facial attacks when riled up enough.
Incidentally the one who attacked me didn't have spurs, but she was as nasty as a little pair of those electrician's wire-cutters. Because my hands are tough, and I didn't react to her twisting and cutting and stabbing, she learned to go between the fingers, and when that stopped getting a response she went for my face. As with the rooster I culled she preferred to attack from the side, slightly behind.
She choked to death on a long blade of dry grass before I could kill her; it was actually her hyper-aggressive nature that caused her to choke on it, since she tried to scream at me and swallow at the same time. All I was doing was bringing her chicks some food, I was still outside her cage, and she was already in full attack mode which I'd come to expect from her. She was a good looking bird but all her chicks were scrappy, worthless birds which I have found very common to very aggressive birds. I suspect excessive aggression in some cases is the breeding strategy of the sub-par animal, since prime animals never have a shortage of willing mates but poor quality animals often get left out in the cold so to speak.
Her mother was very nest-possessive but never harmed anyone over her eggs or chicks, or over anything. She just made great displays and sound effects. That hen has a habit of producing aggressive daughters, though. I've frequently seen that the offspring enlarge upon the habits of the parents, traits tend to increase or decrease, not remain static.