Scissors65
Songster
Advise please! I'm sorry this is a little long.
I have a Leghorn hen (Pearl) 21 weeks old. She started laying a little over two weeks ago and her sister (Opal) started laying one week earlier, and they lay everyday. I also have two New Hampshires.
Pearl loves my attention. She has actually jumped up into my arms a few times when I was standing! And she will hop onto my lap whenever I sit down. She also follows me like Mary's Lambs. But around 17-18 weeks old, she started getting an aggressive side
If I am outside working, she will come up behind me and peck me so hard on the legs she draws blood. She is starting to do this to my husband now too.
She is very aggressive if I bring food out to the hens, she will hop up in the air and pluck whatever I have in my hands out of them.
They say Chickens are descendants of the T-Rex, but I think she is more related to a Velociraptor!
These are things I have tried since she starting doing this:
1. I do not hand feed them
2. Before she started laying and would do the squat, and she acted aggressive towards me, I would stand tall beside her, stare right at her, and she would squat on her own.
3. After she started laying, and she pecked me, I would try and hold my ground, hold her down for a few seconds, and she would stay like that when I let go for a few seconds. But five, ten minutes later she was going at me again.
4. I have tried to peck her back with my fingers, but this just made her go at me like she wanted a challenge. So I don't do that anymore
5. I purchased a squirt gun. This seems to work sometimes, but not enough.
6. I have tried the bad girl, good girl reinforcement with her. Example: squirt her when she pecks me, and when she is being good around me, I reward her with positive affection or a gentile little pat.
7. I purchased a plastic fence to keep her away from me when free ranging. They have a big run, but they love taking dust baths under one of my palm trees, so I put the plastic fencing around the whole area to keep them in there while I am working out in the back yard...BUT....she flys over it!
She is my alfa hen out of the four. She pecks the others as warning if they get too close while eating, but she doesn't draw blood with the other hens.
My husband and I are too old to get pecked so hard. Our skin is thinner now, and it hurts like heck! And we bleed! The other three have pecked us needing no type of action by us, and that is fine, but Pearl does it sooooo much harder.
I love her, she is a great layer. And when she is being nice, I enjoy her. But after three or so weeks of this I need some new ideas! It is getting so bad, the thought of re-homing her has come across my mind, but I don't want to do this unless I have no other choice. Besides I can't separate her from Opal.
Thank you for any suggestion!
I have a Leghorn hen (Pearl) 21 weeks old. She started laying a little over two weeks ago and her sister (Opal) started laying one week earlier, and they lay everyday. I also have two New Hampshires.
Pearl loves my attention. She has actually jumped up into my arms a few times when I was standing! And she will hop onto my lap whenever I sit down. She also follows me like Mary's Lambs. But around 17-18 weeks old, she started getting an aggressive side
If I am outside working, she will come up behind me and peck me so hard on the legs she draws blood. She is starting to do this to my husband now too.
She is very aggressive if I bring food out to the hens, she will hop up in the air and pluck whatever I have in my hands out of them.
They say Chickens are descendants of the T-Rex, but I think she is more related to a Velociraptor!
These are things I have tried since she starting doing this:
1. I do not hand feed them
2. Before she started laying and would do the squat, and she acted aggressive towards me, I would stand tall beside her, stare right at her, and she would squat on her own.
3. After she started laying, and she pecked me, I would try and hold my ground, hold her down for a few seconds, and she would stay like that when I let go for a few seconds. But five, ten minutes later she was going at me again.
4. I have tried to peck her back with my fingers, but this just made her go at me like she wanted a challenge. So I don't do that anymore
5. I purchased a squirt gun. This seems to work sometimes, but not enough.
6. I have tried the bad girl, good girl reinforcement with her. Example: squirt her when she pecks me, and when she is being good around me, I reward her with positive affection or a gentile little pat.
7. I purchased a plastic fence to keep her away from me when free ranging. They have a big run, but they love taking dust baths under one of my palm trees, so I put the plastic fencing around the whole area to keep them in there while I am working out in the back yard...BUT....she flys over it!
She is my alfa hen out of the four. She pecks the others as warning if they get too close while eating, but she doesn't draw blood with the other hens.
My husband and I are too old to get pecked so hard. Our skin is thinner now, and it hurts like heck! And we bleed! The other three have pecked us needing no type of action by us, and that is fine, but Pearl does it sooooo much harder.
I love her, she is a great layer. And when she is being nice, I enjoy her. But after three or so weeks of this I need some new ideas! It is getting so bad, the thought of re-homing her has come across my mind, but I don't want to do this unless I have no other choice. Besides I can't separate her from Opal.
Thank you for any suggestion!
