Bullying between different ages

[LaurenRitz]

I essentially have three flocks--6 weeks, 12 weeks, adult. My problem comes with the two younger groups

They free range together. There's a lot of pecking order stuff, no problem with that. However, a number of times I have seen one of the older pullets deliberately chase one of the babies into a corner and viciously attack them, not allowing the chick to get away.

The chicks sleep together, and one of the older pullets cornered all of them, attacking and slapping them back when they tried to get away.

The only thing that leads me to think this is normal is that none of the chicks have been seriously hurt.

Each time I have had to interfere I have marked the pullet in question. There are six that have done this, but one appears to be the main problem. She is also the one that will crouch by the food and water, driving the chicks away if they try to approach.

So, is this normal pecking order stuff and I'm interfering, or is the pullet a bully that I need to get rid of?

 

[Mrs. K]

I think we need some pictures of your set up. Space is almost always the culprit, and sometimes how the space is arranged. Often times I see a run in which it is just a wide open rectangle with nothing in it. Where a bird can see every other bird 100% of the time.

A much safer and more interesting area is one that is highly cluttered. Ladders, saw horses, pallets up on blocks, mini walls out of plywood pieces, totes on their sides, all allow birds to get out of sight of each other, and away from each other.

Multiple feeding spots set up so that when a bird is eating at one spot cannot see birds eating at other spots.

Often times you will have one very aggressive bird, and she like leads the mob. Pull her out and see if things calm down. If they do, sell her. If you are tight on space, at these ages it is going to get much worse as they grow, it is amazing how much bigger they are going to be, and how much more space they will need.

A couple of misconceptions sometimes people have:

• being raised together will produce life long friends - for chickens being raised together has little influence on their behavior
• letting birds out for a couple of hours will compensate for too small of coop and run - not true.
• A big run or free ranging will compensate for too small of a coop - REALLY not true. You have the long nights of winter, where they are roosted 14 hours a day.

Mrs K

 

[LaurenRitz]

That makes sense. I am raising them in my greenhouse, which is indeed a big box. I let them out first thing in the morning and they're out all day.

I can say that I am raising the RIR's (12 week group) for my sister and they should be gone in a couple weeks. I told her 8-12 weeks but their coop isn't ready yet. So winter shouldn't be an issue, but we've had a lot of rain that has kept everybody inside.

She does still chase them (stalk them, in reality) outside, but with no corners they can get away more easily.

The others ignore the chicks unless they get in their way, but this one goes out of her way to find and torment them.