Advice please - bedtime integration

[JesseK]

They went to bed!!!!!!! I'm out of town situation I didn't get to watch...but whatever happened I'm excited

 

[Celie]

Do you think that would lessen her aggressiveness? At this point they do want to go to bed, she just hurts them when they do.
I'm up for trying anything

It would, I think, make her take a "time out" like a child that does not play well with others. She will no longer be the "Alpha" in the flock. Weather she can think out the repercussions of her actions or not, I don't know your chicken and like people, animals have their own personalities, but it might be worth a try. Look at the alternative, once she kills the first chick, she won't stop. It may take just a couple of days to set her down a peg or two, so to say, but it might take a little longer, meanwhile the chicks Will be growing and getting stronger every day. If that doesn't work, at first, You could teach her she is not alpha, by letting the chicks eat, before you feed her. My dogs will not eat, until DH and I do, no matter what, out of respect for our being the "Alphas" in the family. Birds have a very strong pecking order, and the ones that think they are the "Alphas" can become aggressive toward others they think are weaker. I break up these "practice fights" between my Tom turkeys when they start feeling their Cheerios, by pushing them gently away from each other and gobbling to show them I am the Alpha and so far it has worked with them! I have large flocks of chickens, turkeys and ducks, that all get along fine, but I have only been raising poultry for 7 years, so this is just my opinion and I do not know Ruby. Maybe someone with more experience can chime in here. If she wasn't hurting the chicks or keeping them out of the coop, I would tend to think she was just trying to teach them who is in charge, but sometimes when an animal gets too aggressive, her owner has to show her that the owner is in charge by putting HER in her place. Of course, this is just my opinion!