- Jan 27, 2013
- 7
- 0
- 7
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 .
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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.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.