Chicken hiererarchy

[Wynette]

Yep, you're right, BJ! The higher ups on the pecking order want to be...higher up!

But, in my case, the flock master of my adults is most definitely a hen, not the roo. She's the first one to the gate to greet me, the first one to dive into treats, the first one to chase others away from me so SHE gets most of my attention....and, she even lets the roo know when SHE wants to breed! What a sassy little momma she is!

 

[seafood]

Our BR who is the queen cannot fly as well as the leghorns. The leghorns are able to get all the way up into the rafters of the coop and they roost their at nights.

That is about 4 or 5 feet higher than our highest roost which the BR queen stays on.

So its weird...she runs the show but other birds actually roost higher.

 

[Portia]

Put down a special treat and watch them eat...the top hen or hens will become immediately evident as they won't let the others eat until they have had their fill. I have one BR that is the obvious 'top hen'; she even puts the rooster in his place with some frequency. Thus the roo is 2nd in line. As the girls begin laying (they are 20 weeks) the heirarchy has begun to change a bit; but Mama Rock...the top hen was the first to start obviously laying. I found later that a SS actually started laying earlier, but she was hiding her eggs and being VERY quiet about it all; while the BR is incredibly noisy when she lays

Anyhow, aside from roosting, watch them at times when they are doing things as a group, when they enter/exit the coop at the beginning/end of the day; etc. The ones that do the hen pecking are usually in the upper echelon, those being pecked the lower.