Bully chicken- seriously evil

[Shop Chickens]

I agree, you should easily get a new home for her, the only cure is to put her at the bottom of the picking order.

 

[Sasafras496]

I am no pro, however, I integrated my chickens and there is definitely a PECKING order. If one is being sassy, I remove (to a dog kennel for the night with a nice playmate) in a calm area. For instance, my garage where nothing can get to them. The next day I let them have time with the flock and pulled the MEANIE....I put the Meanie in a kennel for the next three nights or until she/he leaves the picked on birds alone. Ignoring is fine by me. I let them all know I am boss too. So if Meanie is being sassy I touch her butt and make a sound to let her know I have pecking order above all. It sounds weird but it has worked so far. Granted my chickens sit on my shoulder, fall asleep in my daughters arms, follow us around like dogs....we definitely got some crazy chicken stuff going on at our house so the bratty chickens have no choice but to be good here. lol

 

[janshavedice]

There's always chicken soup

 

[themadchicken]

Get a rooster. Most roosters don't tolerate bully's. I have a small bantam rooster in charge of my flock. Even when the large hens start to fight he will coming running and chase the instigator around for a minute and everything returns to normal.

 

[chooks4life]

It's not mean because it's the boss, but it might be the boss because it's mean. Plenty of dominant hens and roosters are gentle and don't use violence to rule over their subordinates --- they're dominant because they're smarter, healthier, older than the ones they dominate, or whatever the reason is. But vicious birds can also become dominant despite being unfit to breed, just because they're more harmful than any other bird in the flock wants to be.

 

[chooks4life]

Quote: Thanks! I've put a few noses out of joint by having a different opinion, so I was thinking to remove the last part since it didn't seem to be helping... But I guess some folks will be offended and others won't no matter what I do so I may as well leave it.


Quote: My top hen's the same. She gives even turkeys the 'look' and they back off. No violence required. She's only the size of a pigeon, a little banty mix. But a great hen.

It's interesting you note your Comet is nice whereas another person notes Comets are mean. This is an important thing I think a lot of people miss because they've been taught all breeds are a certain way, like chickens are carbon copy clones. But they're individuals and more a product of their recent ancestor's environment than their full breed's history. Therefore no breed is able to be labelled as 'nasty' or 'nice' per se --- it all differs.

About any breed or cross breed (Comets, etc) being inherently violent or placid: this is not true. The latest few generations matter more than the whole breed's history. It's much easier and faster to breed bad traits in than good ones. Breeds that are normally raised with artificial incubation and rearing, with the genders kept segregated, etc, often have terrible social skills and are the primary culprits for cannibalism, mutilation and killing of other birds, baby killing, egg eating, etc. These have become hereditary traits we have bred into some breeds. If we breed out their instincts for the natural family group and natural rearing of chicks, what are we replacing them with? All too often, something negative.

But if people put in the time and effort a good few years could breed it out again, though natural care would be necessary --- natural breeding not artificial insemination, hatching and rearing chicks with the mother and a mixed flock of both genders and all ages in place, and so forth. Intensive production commercial breeds from large hatcheries are some of the most troublesome birds in all ways.

 

[ChicKat]

Thanks! I've put a few noses out of joint by having a different opinion, so I was thinking to remove the last part since it didn't seem to be helping... But I guess some folks will be offended and others won't no matter what I do so I may as well leave it.


My top hen's the same. She gives even turkeys the 'look' and they back off. No violence required. She's only the size of a pigeon, a little banty mix. But a great hen.

What if people considered that opinions differing from their own were of value...wouldn't that be an interesting world?

Kind of with chickens and with people -- sometimes the ones that don't kick up a big fuss -- are the ones that are the true leaders.

OH -- I remember now too, when I first brought home two POL Barred Plymouth Rock pullets and my Golden Comet -- they were in a totally unknown and new environment - and the Golden Comet being a mature hen -- did kind of guard the food and water for herself. But I put in another feeding and watering station - so suddenly 'abundance' and less need to be so territorial - everyone ate, everyone drank, everyone was happy. Then they all became best buddies. -- so not only breed characteristics, and not only their incubator/hatchery raising, but also the immediate environment they are in - and how they size things up will affect their behaviors.

 

[chooks4life]

I've always found chooks love to be bathed. Strange creatures.

But then again they are naturally jungle fowl, I'd guess getting soaked is natural to them. Mine don't mind the rain either.

Quote: Some folks think of chooks like they're totally wild birds, not domesticated for thousands of years. So they never handle them. It makes it easy to see when they're sick because then they let you handle them. This theory works, until you realize that your chooks are often past the point of being helped once they've reached the point of not fleeing from what terrifies them. Kinda pointless waiting for them to start dying to handle them to treat them.

Some people say that they're livestock, not pets, so need no handling; but them being non-tame livestock will prevent every necessary treatment being administered without stress, from injury and illness treatment to bringing them to a calm and peaceful death when necessary. Many unnecessary deaths are caused by people simply not taming the animals under their care. It makes stress and hardship and risky interactions for both man and animal.

It does not make sense in the long run, from any point of view, to not tame your livestock. The biggest cattle farmers in Australia take care to tame their cattle despite never seeing them for up to a year at a stretch in some cases. They have strict rules for how they are to be treated. If you cannot handle your livestock to do whatever is necessary without distressing the life out of them, then a fundamental and necessary part of animal husbandry has not yet been taken care of. It's not how often they're handled, it's how they're handled when they are.

Our ancestors didn't work to keep animals tame for the fun of it. It's necessary for our safety and the animal's. I remember an old bit of history I read about shepherds in one country. If a sheep had an anti-tame, human-averse mentality and tried to lead the flock to panic at the shepherd's approach, the shepherds would break one of its legs. Then they'd splint it, put it in a pen, hand-feed it, and make a pet of the sheep while it recovered. When recovered, it would have a pet's mentality and would reliably lead the flock to the shepherd, not away. It sounds quite cruel, but it was either this, or kill the sheep and thus lose a possibly necessary productive member of the flock, or let it continue to scare the flock so they would risk losing their livelihood and possibly watch their families starve. Harsh measures for harsh times. Not that I'd use this method, personally.

I've had chooks become tame and friendly after I've tended them through an injury or illness (nothing deliberately inflicted, don't worry) whereas before the life-changing event they were hostile to humans without cause. Our actions and environment turns genes on and off according to what we do, eat, and experience, and the same is true of animals. Sometimes a life-changing event is all they need to become good productive flock members. It's happened so often that now my family jokes about it, having seen my previous rescues and patients change after treatment.... Now, when we see a chicken being unfriendly without cause, we joke that it needs a 'life threatening event'.

 

[Chicks and Hens]

Put her away for a few weeks so she is " new " when she comes back back sure the other chickens can't see her for awhile so maybe in a basement or large dog kennel and let her out sometimes but not around your chickens...

 

[LillianMae]

I don't have anywhere but the barn to keep her, is there anything else I could do? My other hen spent the night hidden outside because she was being bullied so much, and if the bully is out I have to be with my sweet little girl the whole time to protect her.