Chicken Aggression?!?

[animallover1654]

Hi everyone! So, I have three hens. Up until recently, my New Hampshire Red, Piper, was always the leader of the flock, but it seems as if she has been bumped down to the bottom, and now my Sicillian Buttercup, Maple, is flock leader. It's strange that she is now the leader because she is very small and skittish. Anyway, I would usually have no problem with this except that now Maple is being very aggressive towards Piper. She is plucking out Piper's head feathers, and Piper has a few cuts right on the top of her head. Poor Piper doesn't know what to do with Maple's newfound ferocity! Please let me know how I can help the situation. Thanks!

 

[A Chicken Owner]

They may be establishing a pecking order

 

[sumi]

Remove Maple from the flock for a few days, say a week. When reintroducing her she should be a little lower on the rung and will hopefully stop the bullying behaviour. Otherwise you can try pinless peepers or poultry blinders, see here:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/144815/pinless-peeper-poultry-blinders

Good luck!

 

[Reurra]

Remove Maple from the flock for a few days, say a week. When reintroducing her she should be a little lower on the rung and will hopefully stop the bullying behaviour. Otherwise you can try pinless peepers or poultry blinders, see here:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/144815/pinless-peeper-poultry-blinders

Good luck!

I totally agree with this. And it works! Sometimes a low rung chicken will get some power and become a bully because they are drunk with it. They just need to be knocked down a peg. Its one of the reasons I keep a roo. Some roos will break up fights between hens. One of my best roos fought of my older hens from killing the newly introduced 3 month old pullets. he kept the peace and policed the flock.

 

[animallover1654]

Thank you for the feedback, everyone. The idea of removing her from the flock sounds ideal, but, unfortunately, we don't have a second coop, so no one can be removed from the flock. Any other ideas? I will try and do more research on the poultry blinders.

 

[Reurra]

See if someone can lend you a dog crate. I use dog crates to keep birds separated. They are large enough for them to move around.