Bullying Bird

[HennaRose]

Yesterday afternoon I saw Sophie (24-wk Easter Egger) in the nesting area all flopped out like she was trying to cool off, and Bianca (24-wk White Leghorn) kept yelling at her and trying to push her over. Couldn’t figure out why, until I went in with some more frozen produce to help cool them down and everybody came running. Sophie had been sitting on a white egg; she doesn’t lay white eggs, but Bianca does. I hope it was just that the egg happened to be where she decided to flop down, and not that she's decided she wants to hatch something. She hasn't laid an egg since Thursday.

(Edited to add: there are two nesting boxes in the coop. Nobody uses them - they all lay in front of or beside the boxes. Yes, I've tried fake eggs. That hasn't helped yet.)

Anyhow. Yesterday evening I had to bring Sophie inside because she had an injury on her toe. It was a minor injury, her foot wasn’t swollen and she could still walk just fine, but she was bleeding and the other chickens were pecking at the blood and making it worse. I brought her inside and cleaned her up, stopped the bleeding, and kept her in the house overnight just to make sure she was okay. I assumed at the time that she had gotten her nail caught on something and injured it.

Now I don’t think Sophie got randomly injured after all. I think Bianca pecked her foot to bleeding. I treated Sophie’s foot with BluKote this morning even though there wasn’t any more redness and took her back out. The second I set her down, Bianca rushed her and started pecking her other, uninjured foot. I scolded Bianca while Sophie rushed into the coop and nestled down in the bedding to protect her feet, and the other three birds (I also have a 24-wk RIR and a 25-wk Australorp) went to get their breakfast. When Sophie tried to go get food, Bianca rushed her again and pecked at both her legs, and when Sophie tried to run back to the coop for protection Bianca followed and this time pecked at her face and neck when she tried to huddle into the bedding. And Rosie (RIR) started in on her too, because Bianca was being so persistent. So I brought Sophie back in and now I’m trying to figure out what sparked this and how to fix it, because while I love my birds, I don’t want a house chicken and I don’t have the space in the yard to build a whole second coop.

My sister has a theory that Bianca is still mad at Sophie for sitting on her egg yesterday, since she isn’t pecking at anyone else. What can I do to restore peace and harmony to my flock?

 

[Mrs. K]

Sometimes this happens at this stage of the game, because your birds are full grown, and what was enough space when they were younger and smaller, no longer is enough space. So measure your run and coop. You very well may need to reduce your flock to fit your set up.

I am also wondering what your run looks like, is there any places a chicken can get away from the others, out of sight for a while. In the run, make sure that there is a couple of roosts, a couple of hideouts.

This allows a chicken to be the lowest on the pecking order. The way pecking order works, is the most aggressive chicken gives a thump, and the less dominant chicken runs away. The problem in a confined coop/run, is that there is often no place to run and get out of sight. So the aggressive chicken thinks, that hen does not respect me, she has not run away (there is no place to hide) and thumps her again.

Mrs k
Ps Pulling a chicken out, often makes this worse, they think that the chicken is a stranger if they don't wake up together, just put the blue coat on if it is not a serious wound.

 

[holm25]

$3.99
12pc Soft Pinless Chicken Peepers...
eBay

I would look into these.

 

[HennaRose]

I made sure before I built that it was more than adequate space for the size flock I was planning. It can comfortably house nine full-grown chickens; I have four. Living space is not the issue.

There aren't spaces for hiding, exactly, but there are roosts and nesting boxes. The problem is that Bianca is the smallest of my birds; anywhere that another chicken could get into, so can she.

It's more than just the one injury to her foot. Today Bianca was pecking at uninjured places too, and only on Sophie, not any other bird. It's especially strange to me because Bianca and Sophie have always been the most companionable chickens in the flock to each other. Even in the brooder they would sleep together, eat together, play together, and that continued after both of them started laying. There didn't appear to be a problem until Sophie was caught sitting on Bianca's egg.

I should have mentioned (will go back and edit for future readers) that they have two nest boxes, but nobody uses them for laying eggs. They all lay in front of or beside the boxes. I don't know why. There are fake eggs in both boxes but that doesn't seem to matter to the chickens.

 

[junebuggena]

$3.99
12pc Soft Pinless Chicken Peepers...
eBay

I would look into these.

That is just a bandaid on the problem. It doesn't actually solve the problem. You need to figure out what's causing the aggression in the first place. If it is purely just a mean hen, then the Pinless Peepers may work. But she will need to wear the Peepers for the rest of her life. Yes, it's cheaper and easier than building a bigger run or allowing more supervised free ranging or reducing the flock size; but if it is a space problem, pretty soon you have a whole flock wearing them.

 

[HennaRose]

Re: removing the chicken:

Everything else I read said to take the injured bird out for her own safety. There isn't an injury anymore, but if part of the problem is that they didn't wake up together, I might try putting her back in the coop tonight after dark and see if that helps in the morning. Otherwise I may have to consider removing Bianca from the flock, if the aggression continues.

 

[HennaRose]

I REALLY don't think it's a space problem. Their living area is spacious enough for more than double the flock size; I took into account the county guidelines of 4 sqft in the coop plus 10 sqft in the run per bird, added an extra 2 sqft (16 sqft per bird), and made it big enough for nine birds (144 sqft total). I have four birds, and am planning to add another three when the new chicks (arriving next month) are old enough, but that's still only seven birds, and they should have more than enough space, at what will be 20 sqft per bird. Right now, with only four, they have 36 sqft each. There is more than enough space in the run, plus they get supervised time in the garden every day. By the time the new babies are big enough to go outside, they'll also have all-day access to the garden area; I'm in the process of building fences around the produce so they can't get into it when I'm not out there.

 

[junebuggena]

What are their breeds? The 4 sq ft, 10 sq ft guideline is based on a medium sized bird like a Leghorn or Hamburg and it's only a minimum. The larger the breed, the more space they need, plus some individuals need even more room the minimum guidelines.
What exactly are your coop and run dimensions?

 

[HennaRose]

I listed the breeds in the original post. Leghorn, Easter Egger, Australorp, Rhode Island Red.

And, if you'll read the post directly preceding your last one, you'll see they have more than double the space laid out in the guidelines for each bird. If 36 sqft each is not enough space, then I was sorely misled about how much space each chicken needed.

The coop is 54 sqft and the run is 90 sqft. It's a people-sized walk-in coop and they're in and out of it all day what with the heat and sun here in Florida; it's well-ventilated and offers more shade than the plants in the afternoons when the sun is worst.

 

[HennaRose]

So, since I'm pretty sure that space is not the problem, what else do I need to do so I don't have one chicken bulling another chicken?