Bossy Chickens

[madibhai]

I have a white leg horn that is really bossy.

I have 2 hens that are older and are laying eggs.

I have 6 pullets that sleep in the nest boxes since the white leg horn will only let one other chicken on the roost bars. So the rest are sleeping in the next boxes because they aren't able to get on to the roost bar.

what should i do?

 

[Stiggy]

Put in more perches would be the best start. If she is that bossy then maybe putting them further away from " her perch" . however it sounds like she is top if the flock which is unlikely to change at this point

 

[madibhai]

i have two perches one higher and one 2 feet in front of it that is lower.

2 chickens are on the top and won't let anything near the other perch.

half the time when it is time to go in at night the leg horn will sit by the door and won't let any of the other chickens even come in tot he coop.

 

[ShockValue]

Any way you can remove the leghorn from the equation for a couple of days? (Lock her in the garage or something?)

This might give the young ones a chance to establish themselves in the coop a bit.

 

[madibhai]

what i ended up doing one night is that i would push the chickens out of the nest box. they would go towards the roost and the leghorn would scare them away. i would push them back and they would have to go back on the roost.
eventually the leghorn gave up.

i did the same thing 1 more day.

Now the hens all roost together and the leg horn is no longer the dominant chicken.

 

[azygous]

Congratulations on solving your problem! It's not always an easy matter outsmarting chickens!