Cranky biting pullet

[NellaBean]

I have a pullet who is about 18-20 weeks old. She is one of a group who is really not all that friendly.....however she has gotten downright nasty the last few days. If I reach for her, she will bite me and even hang on and growl if I keep harassing her. I held her for a while and then put her down and she immediately came back at me. I bumped her with my foot and she went back and then came right back and aggressively pecked at my foot! She is as bad as a cranky rooster.

My other non friendly girls just squawk, screech and freak out when I grab them.....they don't get aggressive! Is this something I can get out of her? Or that she might outgrow? She is this tiny little thing and the rooster has only recently started courting the girls.....is it possible she is just going through a "phase"?

 

[mandelyn]

The last hen I had like that was called "Mean Thing"... kept her around for the mothering talent she had. She took setting so seriously I had to put food and water in front of the nest for her, she'd never come off it.

Finally she challenged a hawk, fluffed up, growled at him, stared him down as he circled around. I was watching... surely she's not that stupid! Oh she was. Thought she could take him I guess.

I held her a lot, finally the 2nd year I could even get eggs from under her without a peck (since she was an egg theif, stealing the others by rolling them to her nest) but it took daily handling and talking to her and feeding her to get her to atleast be nice to me.

 

[gritsar]

Just curious, has your pullet started laying yet? I have two girls that are not that friendly, but they got downright mean when they were getting ready to lay for the first time. They got over it after the first couple of eggs.

 

[NellaBean]

No, she is not laying yet. She used to be the friendliest of that batch. None of them are all that friendly, but she was the one I could handle if I caught her and she would come up to me for treats. Now if I reach for her she snakes around to bite at me and just seems to want to pick fights if I don't get out of her way. She is still running for treats and acting normally out in the yard though....

I noticed her rooster has really started courting the ladies yesterday but she is the only one he is REALLY courting aka grabbing and trying to mount. She is missing feathers from the back of her neck and I wonder if maybe she is just extra defensive right now? She is pretty low on the pecking order, I think. Definitely below ALL of my older girls....not sure where she is in the young batch, but I think she is pretty low there too.


Her comb has just started getting bigger, but I expect she has another month before laying, at least. It is still pretty small and she is very petite and little.

I was wearing gloves and long sleeves and still have a few marks from her biting today. She just had it out for me! When I went to lock up and got the flashlight to count my chickens (ha), her whole posture changed when I shined it at her. So bizarre.......I don't handle them much, so no idea when she went from sort of nice to sort of mean.

 

[insiderart]

Hmm Nella you have some really pretty chickens from what I can remember from past pics. Which one is this offending hen? I don't think I would like to have such a mean chicken.

 

[NellaBean]

This is actually a chicken that I probably haven't shown here. She is just a plain little black chicken......

I don't like having mean chickens (or roosters!) at all......so she will have to shape up or ship out! I axed the mean rooster a while back (or gave him to someone that would) and she will get the same trip if she doesn't calm it down a bit.


But this seems pretty sudden and strange, so maybe there is something else going on? It is hard to say.......