Chicken Attacks Me

[donnerbrandpears]

Hi. So I have three hens. They have never gotten along very well and now the oldest hen, Penny, is henpecking my stupidest bird, Olivia. Penny has torn out much of the feathers on Olivia's back, which I treated with Pick-Me-Not, so it is starting to grow back.

Olivia, who I really can't stressed the stupidity of enough, has always pecked at me, but lately since the henpecking has been bad, she's been actually attempting to attack me whenever I feed them. Today she ran at me and grabbed on my pant leg and flapped around, and then acted very aggressive, like we were in some hardcore bird tumble I didn't know about.

I am not sure what to do with this behavior. I have tried picking her up and basically holding her in the air to show her that she is small and weak, but it seems to be making it worse.

Has anyone ever dealt with a chicken who attacks you? What should I do to stop it? Someone suggested holding her upside down by the legs--does this work?

It is this is getting bad enough that I might have to get rid of Olivia if things don't improve.

 

[Beekissed]

Can you blame Penny?

I'd pick on Olivia too! If she were mine, she'd be gone.

 

[kgdubois]

Olivia would go in the pot, if she were mine. Any bird that is aggressive or ugly towards me gets the axe...I figure I put in too much time and effort to put up with nasty behavior...I also breed my birds, and I do not want that type of thing passed down to any of my chicks

Good luck!

 

[un-named]

Where's the smilie of the axe falling when you need it?

 

[ninabeast]

Wow. That's awful. Trixie will cut you for a piece of bread, but I've never seen anything like that. I'm not sure I'd put up with it for long...

 

[hispoptart]

How old is she? One of my RIR's got very agressive just before she started laying. I delt with it for about 2 weeks then she started laying and was fine again.

 

[donnerbrandpears]

Ha. Thanks for the replies. Actually I don't blame Penny at all! Olivia is about a year old. She lays fine, although right now they are molting.

 

[hispoptart]

Then maybe she is cranky because of molting, I really hate when people are so quick to cull.

 

[gryeyes]

Two things: chickens are VERY cranky when molting. They're miserable. Secondly, a chicken has no way to get your attention without pecking at you. No arms. Just a beak to grab at your clothes, "Hey! See me! I want attention!"

 

[aoxa]

Quote:
Yeah, molting chickens are really cranky

my head hen is molting and is bossing everyone around. She wouldn't dare bite the hand that feeds her