I have 18 New Hampshire Reds......2 roosters.This is my first attempt to raise chickens for eggs and so far so good.Starting to get eggs now.They are very friendly chickens and we let them free roam during the day since we have lots of room. All 18 can be hand fed if you want to.........only the boss rooster gets a little sassy sometimes especially if your feeding his hens and they climb up on your lap, but can be calmed down quickly with some backhand bumps to his chest........picking him up and carrying him around a while really seems to shame him and he will go back in the coup for a while after you do that. Anyhow the hen which I'm pretty sure is at the very bottom of the pecking order is very,very person friendly and is often off by it's self during the day.If I have to put them back in the coup before they go in on their own right before dark..........I have a very hard time to get this one single chicken to go in and of course it gets skittish at this time. The chickens all seem to get along well ....there is some minor jostling with the hens at times but nothing major and they sure don't pick on this one smaller chicken ....even though they are all the same age I was surprised how some developed faster then the others. My question is .....Is this common for the chicken at the bottom to set off on it's own alot?.... Also great forum you have here.....got alot of info about how to begin raising chickens just reading threads back in May ....just now registered though.And hope to be able to contribute at some point to some of the threads on here.
Just make sure she is getting her share of food and water. Sometimes the shy ones get cheated. They'll work it out, probably, eventually.
I have 7 hens and the one at the bottom of the pecking order is my easter egger, Cleo. She is always off on her own and keeps to herself while the others hang out together. She does seem like kind of a loner! It makes me sad when the others pick on her. Nothing too serious, just usually if I throw treats out for them, they kind of peck at her to get more treats for themselves. I usually hand feed her some so she's not cheated. If I'm sitting out in the run with them and one of the other girls picks on her, I'll tap on my leg and call her and she'll jump up on my lap for a hug and a little love I feel sad because she gets picked on, but I know it's the natural order of things. Luckily it has never been that bad. I'm guessing she tends to be a loner and stay off by herself so she doesn't get picked on as much.
