Bullying

[Isabella_animale]

How to stop chickens from bullying? So I have a 11 year old Sebright Bantam hen who's been attacking my two almost 1 year old hens that she lives with for the past few days. Here's a short summary of my 11 year old story that might be why - So I got my 11 year old about 10 years ago when she was a few months old, she was kept alone without any chickens for about a year until we got her a standard size sister, she loved her so much and they never attacked eachother, they spent about 6 years together until her sister sadly passed. She then spent 4 years alone and was happy doing so since she had a lot of human attention. Until last year, I hatched some chicks, and at the same time I was incubating them she got broody but we wanted to get her fertilized eggs of her same breed, so we did. Both hers and ours hatched. So eventually they got older and we ended up keeping 2 standard hens from the ones I hatched and 1 bantam rooster that she raised. We put them all together and it took a little while for them all to get used to eachother but eventually they did. Fast forward to this year, they were fine in the beginning until a few days ago my bantam hen I guess "decided" she wants to be alone again and started to attack them. The only thing that changed is that she started laying eggs again (she only lays eggs in the spring/summer). How do I stop this? It's bad for everyone involved since she keeps attacking the big hens but of course they defend themselves and attack her back and there stronger so they end up hurting her. Like today she had blood driping from her crest, but she is the one starting the fight. So how do I make this stop without separating?

 

[azygous]

It may be hormones are at least partially responsible for this sudden tendency to conflict. I have old hens and they can decide to get tough from time to time if younger chickens rub them the wrong way. Yes, combs get bloodied, but that's what combs are for. They heal quickly. And, no, there's no way to stop old hens laying eggs unless you want to get them a hormone implant.

A certain amount of conflict is normal as chickens are maturing and feeling their way in the pecking order. Occasionally, things will get rough, and there will be bloodied combs, but then a truce is reached, and life rolls on.

Try letting these conflicts resolve themselves. The younger ones will either learn to give the old girl a lot of space, or they won't care if she beats them up once in a while. That's their choice.

I have a eleven-year old hen who has been raising pullets. She's very protective of them, even though they are ten months old. I have a very young two-year old hen that doesn't care if she gets beat up when she comes around to steal food from this hen and her little family. She just keeps on doing it anyway. The older hen has mostly given up trying to get the point across to stay away, and she tolerates this hen most of the time. But once in a while I'll see her lash out like a rattlesnake and grab this young hen by her comb and swing her around like she's going to shoot her off into orbit. The conflict is over in fifteen seconds, and the younger hen goes back to stealing food, and the older one ignores her.

Observe yours for a while and I bet you will see something similar.