Aggressive Hen towards new Pullets

[Shann0]

Hello all,
I'm having an issue with my EE hen. I have three new young pullets that are ready to be out in the coop. I kept them in the temporary run for 2 weeks (temp run is attached to the coop, but they cannot get at each other.) This has always worked fine for me in the past, and I have never had this much of a problem integrating new chickens. My EE is seriously homicidal. If I'm holding one of the younger chicks, she will walk up to me and stare at the chicks and literally try to go right for their eyes. This morning, I let the adult hens out, and went to let the younger chicks into the run, and the EE was waiting at the door for the young pullets to run by her to get to the run, and as soon as they came out, she came after them, wings out and head down, murder on her mind. The pullets screamed as soon as they saw her coming, and I got between them and punted the EE. She took off and the pullets were able to get to the run safely.

She has injured my youngest pullet, and now that she is healed, I don't want to risk further injury.

Also, the EE has stopped laying since the younger ones came about. All that worry and stressing about murder I suppose. At this point, I'm ready to cull.

I have three laying hens, a Black Sex Link that doesn't pay any attention to the new pullets, the homicidal EE, and a Golden Laced Wynadotte that I have noticed the past two days is getting a little more aggressive towards the pullets. She is pretty good pals with the EE, so I'm thinking she is learning bad habits.

The only other option I can think to try before culling would be to allow the pullets into the coop with the Black Sex Link adult hen, and put the EE and the Wynadotte into the temporary run. Reverse the situation. Then let the Wynadotte out after a few days, back into the normal coop with the Black sex link and the 3 pullets, make sure she isn't aggressive towards them anymore after her time in "time-out", and then a few more days try to let the EE out again. And if there's any aggression, put them back in time-out.

But I don't have the experience with such an aggressive hen to know if it is fixable. She is not the top hen out of the three. I would say it goes Black Sex Link, Wynadotte, then the EE. I thought initially that perhaps she was just trying to make sure they young pullets didn't get above her in the pecking order, but now I seriously think she's just crazy.

I don't want to waste a lot of time trying to train her to stop the aggression, if it is the case that sometimes these kinds of birds are just that way.

Does anyone have any advice?

 

[RonP]

Personally, I would separate the aggressors.

Once the newcomers are established, reintroduce the aggressors.

They will now be the newcomers to the flock, and reestablish the pecking order.

 

[Shann0]

Personally, I would separate the aggressors.

Once the newcomers are established, reintroduce the aggressors.

They will now be the newcomers to the flock, and reestablish the pecking order.

That's a great idea. See, that's why I love BYC- great suggestions that I simply had not thought of. Thanks for the advice, I will give this a try.
-Shannon

 

[aart]

Quote: That's basically what you were going to do, separate the aggressors(the EE and the Wyandotte)......
......I'd separate them for longer than just a few days tho, I'd ago at least a couple weeks then add the two rogues back in together.

........

The only other option I can think to try before culling would be to allow the pullets into the coop with the Black Sex Link adult hen, and put the EE and the Wynadotte into the temporary run. Reverse the situation. Then let the Wynadotte out after a few days, back into the normal coop with the Black sex link and the 3 pullets, make sure she isn't aggressive towards them anymore after her time in "time-out", and then a few more days try to let the EE out again. And if there's any aggression, put them back in time-out.

............

 

[Shann0]

That's basically what you were going to do, separate the aggressors(the EE and the Wyandotte)......
......I'd separate them for longer than just a few days tho, I'd ago at least a couple weeks then add the two rogues back in together.

Right, gotcha. What I thought RonP meant was to separate the two aggressive hens from each other, while they were away from the flock... I thought perhaps his line of thinking in that was to bring them back to the flock singularly to keep them from feeding off of each other's aggression. (What I was also originally planning on) But I thought he was saying to separate them from each other. I could easily just add some chicken wire to split the pen down the middle. Would this have any affect? Or just stress them out I'm kind of thinking..?

 

[aart]

Quote: I read RonP's post as to separate the 2 from the flock but keep the 2 together, then put them both back with flock at the same time, tho I may be mistaken there.

That's what I would try first then if they do turn out to be the evil twin terror pack, separate them from the flock again and each other and then reintroduce one at a time.

You could also try to just split the coop with the 2 on the other side from the flock for a couple weeks, but sometimes 'out of sight' is what's needed.

So many options, and it all takes time to see what works.

Just reread your OP....how old are the new pullet 'chicks'?
I'm assuming in all this that the 'chicks' are of about the same size as the existing hens.

 

[RonP]

I read RonP's post as to separate the 2 from the flock but keep the 2 together, then put them both back with flock at the same time, tho I may be mistaken there.

Exactly.

I would take the pair out, and out of sight from the rest of the flock, long enough for the pullets to have established themselves as flock members, and in their respective pecking order, with the existing members.

I may very well take a few weeks.

Regardless, I would keep the 2 outcasts separated for a minimum of 3 weeks.

Then reintroduce them.

They will now have to reestablish themselves, and should be on the defence, not offence.

 

[aart]

Quote: OK cool...the 3 weeks will also give the new bird a good amount of time to settle in and get comfortable and established.

 

[Shann0]

Just reread your OP....how old are the new pullet 'chicks'?
I'm assuming in all this that the 'chicks' are of about the same size as the existing hens.

I may be misusing the terms hens/pullets. My adult hens range from 1 year (the two aggressors) to 3 years old (Black Sex-Link is from my original group, she is the oldest, and also the most gentle with the youngins). The new ones I am attempting to integrate are only about half the size of the adult hens. They were hatched in the first week of February. I haven't ever had problems before integrating younger/smaller chickens like I am having now...

Exactly.

I would take the pair out, and out of sight from the rest of the flock, long enough for the pullets to have established themselves as flock members, and in their respective pecking order, with the existing members.

I may very well take a few weeks.

Regardless, I would keep the 2 outcasts separated for a minimum of 3 weeks.

Then reintroduce them.

They will now have to reestablish themselves, and should be on the defence, not offence.

Noted, thank you!