Aggressive Leghorn

[potterpoulets]

I have a mixed flock of 6 hens and have been having some issues with my Leghorn. Initially, she started laying about 2 weeks before the others, so when the others started laying, she was pretty ****** they were in "her" nesting boxes. She left the more assertive hens alone, but she pecked one of the buff orps bloody. The others followed suit. (This was a couple months ago.) I took out the pacing buff orp and the leghorn. I put the BO back at night and she calmed down after a couple days. The leghorn continued on the same path after a week, so eventually, I built her a timeout pen within the run. Little by little, I took down the cardboard that was blocking view so that they would become comfortable with each other. When I let leghorn out, the other BO went after leghorn (are they self aware?!?!?), but generally they were all okay together. Leghorn, however, would sit in the pop hole not letting anyone in or out, and I began finding eggs in the run, so back she went to timeout.

Meanwhile, I built a new coop. I put 5 hens into the new digs about a week ago so that they could settle in ahead of leghorn. (leghorn is in the old coop temporarily) So, I'm going to give leghorn her last shot soon. Timeout pen has been reconstructed and is ready just in case, but she can't stay outside in winter. I'm going to add some roosts in the run so that hopefully she can feel some dominance without guarding the nesting boxes. And I ordered pinless peepers a few months ago, which I haven't tried. Any other suggestions are welcome. It's really her last shot with this group, and I'd like to give her every chance to get it right.

 

[cavemanrich]

You can trim her top portion of her beak, so she does not harm your other hens. Do not do anything to bottom of beak portion. She would not be able to drink then. I had a White leghorn a while back... She got along with my mixed flock well.
WISHING YOU BEST and

 

[Isaac 0]

If im seeing it clearly they don't have that much space.Lack of space results in fighting.Also whats the Feet by Feet

 

[chickens really]

Yes, You have a few to many Birds...Crowding is not good with Chickens....Your Coop looks big enough for 3 Hens.....

Cheers!

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Chickens need to burn off lots of energy during the day in order to be calm happy birds. Your hens are way too crowded and have nothing much to do but pick on each other. You will need to greatly enlarge their run area in order for them to live peacefully together, or allow some free ranging. As your birds fully mature things will probably get worse unfortunately.

 

[Isaac 0]

She is likely top of the pecking order bossing everybody around.More space would help

 

[potterpoulets]

Yes yes, we were waiting on construction to finish to get our backyard back. I built panels, and put them together as a temporary situation, but now they are reconfigured as a lean to, so double the square footage from what you see here. The construction lasted longer than expected, as construction generally does. I do hope that more space will help. Their coop is 2x as big as well!

Any other suggestions to dissuade her from guarding the nesting boxes?

 

[chickens really]

Cheers!!!

 

[aart]

Yes yes, we were waiting on construction to finish to get our backyard back. I built panels, and put them together as a temporary situation, but now they are reconfigured as a lean to, so double the square footage from what you see here. The construction lasted longer than expected, as construction generally does. I do hope that more space will help. Their coop is 2x as big as well!

Any other suggestions to dissuade her from guarding the nesting boxes?

Space and time is the only possible cure....even then the aggressive bird may never 'play nice'.
You could always use the old small coop/run to do some chicken juggling to try and take her down a peg.

How big will the new coop and run be.... in feet by feet?
Pics would help.

Tho newly laying pullets can be pretty crazy with surging hormones and may calm down in time.

 

[potterpoulets]

Yes, she is in the old coop right now. I don't have 2 runs, so it's not a long term solution. (And I intend to sell the old coop, eventually.)

Let's see if I can dig up some pictures:
This is the old coop 4x4 and the old run configuration 6x6. (They were pigeon shaped and sized when they went in here.) As I said, it was a temporary solution because we had a lot of construction going on in our backyard.

Now that construction is finally done, I have reconfigured the panels to the back of our new garage. So, 6x12. I do hope to let them out some once they're secure in it being their home, but we also live on top of a major road, so we'll see how it goes. I imagine during the winter, they'll mostly stay in the coop and run. Today I'm going to frame the roof. :/

The new coop is inside the garage. It's difficult to photograph the whole thing from the inside because it's under the stairs, but it's roughly 4x8.


I have 3 people willing to take her, but I would prefer to make it work if I can.