Chickens becoming aggressive.

[phillip1930]

Hi everyone!
We have 4 hens (3 Buff orpingtons , 1 Barred rock.)

We bought them as chicks as we read that those breeds are least aggressive, and good egg producers.
They live in a large custom chicken coop with windows, an enclosed run. They are let out every morning to free range our backyard.

Recently they have become increasingly aggressive.
At first only one of the Buff's would run in the coop when I was changing the water and food and peck my hand. (no problem)

They were very tame and calm when in the yard with us, and would even put up with our 2 year old.

Around 2 weeks ago I notice they would charge me while I was walking around the yard and some of them would even run up and peck at my pant legs. This seemed to be focused around me and I brushed it off as them hating me for some reason.

But this week they began charging and pecking my wife and 2 year old unprovoked.

and this morning one of them was trying to fight and peck us as we were trying to leave for work out the side gate.
to get it away from my wife and toddler I had to kick it away.

I have no Idea what has gotton into them?
We have never been mean to them or hit them and assumed we were being pretty good chicken parents.
The only thing that has changed recently is one of the chickens has begun to lay but we have only gotten 3 eggs from her so far...

Has anyone experienced similar behavior ?

Thank You
-Phillip

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

They do get moody and anxious before they first lay, think of them as moody teenage girls, hopefully they will calm down after a bit, I don't tame my chickens just for these reasons, pecking chickens freak me out.

 

[aart]

Are all of them doing this or just one or two?
Are you sure they are all females? Posting some pics might help.

Do they have feed available in the coop 24/7?
Have you hand fed them a lot?

For new chicken keepers like yourselves, it can be hard to draw the line between good and bad chicken and human behaviors. They may be getting a bit more territorial with the onset of lay and if you haven't dominated them by discouraging any assertive behaviors towards yourselves, then they may think they are the 'bosses'.

It can be hard to understand this and act on it.... and impossible for tiny kids to understand, plus tiny kids have high voices and energetic, erratic movements which can make chickens feel very nervous and defensive.

 

[katieroth]

I'm having trouble with an aggressive girl too. She's a speckled sussex, over a year old. She was sweet and we got along fine until a few months ago. She started putting her wings down in that attack position. She puffs up her chest and comes after me. I read another thread (or advice place) that said if your roo is doing that, pick him up and walk around with him. That seemed to help actually for about a month, but she's back to it again. She also is laying sub-par eggs lately -- thin shells that break. I'm giving them extra calcium etc but she's still not laying well. I've checked and there's no sign she's growing spurs.
On top of that, she's also mean to my 3 new pullets. I've taken to putting her in a time out pen and letting everyone else out. That's only for an hour now and then--maybe I should leave her on her own for a full day, let her battle her way to the top of the flock again.
I'm tired of getting pecked!