aggressive hen

hencrazy505

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i need help to stop the hen at pecking at me when i sit down with her and the other girls and reach out my hand to give her a treat or something her neck feathers fluff up and she pecks at me .
 
Every chicken is different. She is either competing with you for top hen or she is afraid of you. Whatever the case you need to be calm and patient with her, try ignoring her behavior and make her work harder than the others in another way like, if your hand feeding skip her a few times in a row and monitor her behavior. Also try making her reach for her treat and look up at it and look up at you when taking it. I would sit on a stool or something also to gain the height over her.

The situation for chicken behaviors is simple but always has more than one way to look at it.
 
thanks ill try it
fl.gif
 
Every chicken is different. She is either competing with you for top hen or she is afraid of you. Whatever the case you need to be calm and patient with her, try ignoring her behavior and make her work harder than the others in another way like, if your hand feeding skip her a few times in a row and monitor her behavior. Also try making her reach for her treat and look up at it and look up at you when taking it. I would sit on a stool or something also to gain the height over her.

The situation for chicken behaviors is simple but always has more than one way to look at it.
I'm sorry, I totally disagree with this. Watch your flock for a while--or any group of animals. You can usually identify the alpha animal easily. One hallmark of the alpha is none of the other animals touch it without it's invitation. They don't rub it, bump it, peck it, etc. The alpha, on the other hand, will touch the lower ranks as they wish and the lower ranks either move away, tolerate it or see it as an invitation/permission to touch the alpha in return. So, if a hen is pecking at a human, first she's not competing for alpha status, she already has it! The human has allowed the hen to approach and peck and has not prevented it from happening again, therefore the hen is the alpha. The hen is in control of the encounter, she touched the human, she's the boss here all the way. And no way is the hen afraid of the human. If that were the case the hen would not approach the human.

I'd say don't let this hen approach you. Don't let her peck you, ever! When she approaches you, chase her away. If she manages to peck you, swat her. I'm not saying injure her, but birds physically chase and flog each other to establish dominance, you can do the same thing. She pecks you, swat her back a few feet. If she comes after you in ernest, it's on and you have to make her think she's going to die for challenging you. Continue to act very dominant and assertive around her, don't let her approach you, make her move away from you each time you're in her area. She'll get the idea. And don't think it will make her not like you. As long as you feed her she'll like you.
 
I agree and dis-agree at the same time. It is a dominance factor and I would use height to alter it rather than pecking back. I had a hen that would take the food so forcefully from me that i think she was just in a hurry and others that would barely be able to get the food because they wouldn't get close enough. Sometimes a miss at the food can be considered a peck. The flock needs a good Alpha female so by trying to dominate her your depriving them of a social feature essential for the good of the group.

The perfect situtaion is to have them see you as the Alpha and the her as the Alpha when your not around and for her to see you as the Alpha again only when your around. You might find that by dominating over her with a negative force she will become either worse or become totally submisive and start getting beaten up by all the others.

By Using your height over her it is a signal to everyone of your status and not a reflection on her just a fact. Pecking order is more than just pecking it's about respect and from a bird there is no greater respect than being above the others on a perch or simply feeding from overhead.
 
oh one reason the alpha female died ,,,i miss her soooooo much and i guess she try to take her place but chicka my amerucana pecks at her.
 
I have an alpha hen. Controls thefeed lot. Other girls steer clear of her because there's a good chance of being pecked. She is the biggest of all 6 girls. What to do?
 

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