Bullying in the flock!

[RDchicken99]

Hello! I have a case of some pretty bad bullying going on in my flock. My new Gold Laced polish girls are getting quite bullied by the rest of my flock. My flock has them stand up on the feed bin or a straw bale and whenever one of the Polish tries to hop down, one of the older girls will chase them back up! The only time I see the Polish eating is when the others are foraging out in the run, any ideas on how to help? I’m worried my Polish aren’t getting enough food!

 

[azygous]

Polish chickens are the little kids at school the bullies love to target for the way they look and their timidity. You need to level the playing field for them by giving them a few advantages over the others.

The Polish are pointing you in the right direction to solve this. Expand on their vertical escapes by enlarging them and elevating them more. Then place their food and water on these newly created vertical spaces. I've used an old camp table in the past when I have juveniles that are being hounded away from the feeders.

The problem with any bullying victim being kept from food is they may become weak from malnutrition and that only makes them more timid and less able to stand up for themselves. Having their own spaces where they can rest and eat in peace will strengthen their bodies as well as their self confidence.

Here's my theory on treating bullying in a flock. https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/chicken-bully-chicken-victim-a-two-sided-issue.73923/

 

[Ridgerunner]

Hello! I have a case of some pretty bad bullying going on in my flock. My new Gold Laced polish girls are getting quite bullied by the rest of my flock. My flock has them stand up on the feed bin or a straw bale and whenever one of the Polish tries to hop down, one of the older girls will chase them back up! The only time I see the Polish eating is when the others are foraging out in the run, any ideas on how to help? I’m worried my Polish aren’t getting enough food!

First, how old are your chickens, the new and the old? Regardless of breed this type of behavior is very familiar when you try to integrate immature chickens with more mature chickens. If the Polish were the older ones they'd be the ones doing the bullying. Some of this behavior can be there when you integrate chickens the same age or level of maturity, but this is classic behavior with immature versus more mature. This is so classic I'll assume they are chicks. If they are the same age some of this won't apply.

When an immature chicken invades the personal space of a more mature chicken they are very likely to get pecked. Some flocks are more relaxed about this than others, but it usually doesn't take long for the younger ones to learn to avoid the older. It sounds like yours have learned that lesson. My young pullets usually avoid the older hens day and night until they mature enough to join the pecking order, which is typically about when they start to lay. Until then they form a sub-flock and avoid the hens during the day and won't sleep near them at night. There can be some exceptions to this but not many in my flock.

If you read many threads on here about how to integrate you constantly see comments about room. This is why. The more room they have to avoid the aggressors the easier integration usually is.

I don't know what your facilities look like or how big they are so it is hard to give specific suggestions. You can often improve the quality of what room you have by adding clutter. Clutter means things they can hide below, behind, or above, in the coop and outside. We often suggest the "look but don't touch" method, where you house them across wire from each other for a while to get them used to each other. If your hens are not going out of their way to attack the chicks as long as they are able to avoid the adults this should not be a problem for you.

It can help a lot if you can set up separate feeding and watering stations, so far apart that the chickens can't see one from the other. Or have something between them to break the line of sight. If your chicks are small enough compared to the others you may be able to set up a creep feeder. That's a secure space the chicks can get to but the adults can't using openings just big enough for the chicks to get through. I don't know if you have enough room to build something like that.

I sometimes use this as a creep feeder when I have a broody hen raising very young chicks with the flock so they can eat in peace. The chicks can get in through the ends but the older ones can't reach inside. Some people make them bigger and fancier.

I raise four or five broods a year, some broody-raised and some brooder-raised. In addition to having over three thousand square feet available outside and different shelters and coops they can sleep in, I typically have one feeding station and one watering station in the main coop, sometimes a separate feed and water station in a grow-out coop, and always two widely scattered feed and water stations outside. I see avoidance behavior but I don't see problems. They have room to avoid.

Good luck!

 

[RDchicken99]

Thank you so much for those thoughtful and helpful responses! I really appreciate your time, I’ll get to work on helping my polish girls as soon as I can!