Does Breed Have Any Effect on

[abosman]

Are there any breeds, from your experience that you find are often at the bottom or top of the pecking order? Does the breed matter at all? Or does it just have to do with the chicken’s characteristics? I’ve been doing a lot of research on the pecking order recently, and am curious about it!

 

[centrarchid]

Breed can be important. There are breed differences in aggression. Some of the differences are related to size of birds. Then there is variation in physical ability and willingness to persist with a conflict (gameness).

What really complicates things is vitality of birds competing and life stage that can over ride breed issues.

 

[diamondsilkies]

I do think that occasionally breed will play into the pecking order, but the main factor is the bird's personality. I used to have my seramas in my mixed flock, with both silkies and standard-sized birds. Surprisingly, almost all of my seramas were near the top of the pecking order, despite being less than a fourth of the size of some of the other birds. The few that were near the bottom were much more passive in personality and less willing to fight back if they got picked on.