Boss Hens????

[DeplorableChicken]

Curious about boss Hens???

 

[Kiki]

HI there!

Boss hens?
Are you meaning the top of the pecking order hen?

What would you like to know?

 

[DeplorableChicken]

Hey sorry for the delayed reply. I'm still figuring out this site. It's not like Facebook. What I was curious about is that I read somewhere that a flock of hens usually have a boss. Or one who is in charge. Kinda runs things. Is this true and how do I determine which one has become boss? Mine are starting to show the rat race for the position.

 

[Kiki]

Hey sorry for the delayed reply. I'm still figuring out this site. It's not like Facebook. What I was curious about is that I read somewhere that a flock of hens usually have a boss. Or one who is in charge. Kinda runs things. Is this true and how do I determine which one has become boss? Mine are starting to show the rat race for the position.

Yes it is true.
The first think I would look for is who goes to eat first...
see if "she" pecks the others away from the food any.

How old are you girls?
Are they all for sure girls?

 

[DeplorableChicken]

Yes it is true.
The first think I would look for is who goes to eat first...
see if "she" pecks the others away from the food any.

How old are you girls?
Are they all for sure girls?

Yes it is true.
The first think I would look for is who goes to eat first...
see if "she" pecks the others away from the food any.

How old are you girls?
Are they all for sure girls?

 

[DeplorableChicken]

One set is about a month old and the second set is 3 weeks. I have noticed a lot of jealously when it comes to eating. One is always concerned with what everyone has even though they all have the same thing

 

[Sara Ranch]

How many chickens in each set?

What breed? Some breeds are more aggressive than other breeds.

Are there enough feeding stations?

For my senior citizen flock (29 girls, 3 boys) I put out 4 feeding stations. The chicks are funny! Running from one to the other to see if there's something better in another dish. Lol. It's the same fermented feed. With four feeding (huge) bowls, there's easily enough room for everyone to around the bowl to eat, so no one is left out. *** Sometimes I will see a chicken pecking at another girl to say go somewhere else. It's rare though.

For my baby girl flock (22 girls, 2 boys), I put out a baking dish of food, plus two plastic containers of food. I want to make sure they can all fit around the edges to eat. I will be reducing that to two feeding stations, as some of the pigs actually stand in the dish to eat, while the rest crowd around the edges. They all go for the large dish and ignore the smaller dishes until the large one is empty. *** In this flock, there are some mean girls!

For my tiny baby girl flock (7 girls), I put out one dish. It starts off with everyone around the dish. About the time the food is finished, the youngest 5 girls climb in and take a nap. No one's the boss.

For my coop flock (16 total), they all get along. I use to have another rooster in there and his two girlfriends. I removed them because the were mean. Put them in with the senior citizens. Those three aren't mean anymore!

 

[Kiki]

That one may be a boy..keep an eye on it.
I don't think you are seeing the regular boss hen pecking order stuff this early.
Still too young, imo.
Ten are just being chickens still at this age.

 

[Sara Ranch]

Agreed. Lol - I guess I didn't finish my thoughts in my post.

The descriptions of my flocks illustrates that every group is different. The same rules don't apply to everyone.

Sometimes having multiple feeding stations helps at feeding time. Same with water.

If the flock is all girls, then one usually takes on the role of a rooster. That doesn't mean she will be mean to the other girls - just means she might crow or appear to be the leader of the group, herding the girls in at night, calling out that the food has been delivered, or sounding the warning bells.

If you do find that one or more birds are mean, remove them. Things will settle afterwards.

 

[DeplorableChicken]

First set of 6 has two RIR and four ISA-B. The second set of 6 is all RIR and they just like to charge each other almost in a playing manner.