A little background. Last year, my one year old Buff Orpington went broody and I let her sit on plastic eggs for 21 days and then picked up 3 day-old Andalusian's and she raised them. The other Buff Orpington took on an Auntie type role and helped raise them. And then my alpha hen is a Jersey Giant.
So today I have the 6 hens and everyone for the most part gets along. There's some squabbling over treats, but that's to be expected. They live in a HUGE predator proof run and I let them out for about an hour each afternoon into the garden.
The BO who played Auntie to the 3 babies, seems to hypnotize them and then pecks them. It's funny to watch. They walk right up to her and freeze. She stares into their eyes and then they bow down and she pecks them on the head. And they don't move or walk away.
It's like they are saying, thank you mama, may I have another? This will go on for 3 or 4 pecks and then it's over and they walk away.
My husband is convinced that the BO is hypnotizing the other hens so she can peck at them. But I say that's ridiculous, right?. Has anyone ever seen anything like this?
She's not drawing blood or pulling feathers and they could SOOOOO easily walk away from her pecking so I'm not going to worry about it. I'm just really curious what is going on there.
So today I have the 6 hens and everyone for the most part gets along. There's some squabbling over treats, but that's to be expected. They live in a HUGE predator proof run and I let them out for about an hour each afternoon into the garden.
The BO who played Auntie to the 3 babies, seems to hypnotize them and then pecks them. It's funny to watch. They walk right up to her and freeze. She stares into their eyes and then they bow down and she pecks them on the head. And they don't move or walk away.
It's like they are saying, thank you mama, may I have another? This will go on for 3 or 4 pecks and then it's over and they walk away.
My husband is convinced that the BO is hypnotizing the other hens so she can peck at them. But I say that's ridiculous, right?. Has anyone ever seen anything like this?
She's not drawing blood or pulling feathers and they could SOOOOO easily walk away from her pecking so I'm not going to worry about it. I'm just really curious what is going on there.