Does My Chicken Hate Me?!

[chicksofclaridon]

One of my 6 girls, JoAnne the White Leghorn, has been perplexing me lately with her hot and cold attitude. When I let them all out to free range, I walk around with them (hawks are all over the place) for a while and she will come up to me, pecking at my boots or pants because she wants to be held. I pick her up and pet her, and after a minute or two she closes her eyes and goes to sleep (SO cute ). Anyway, after a bit I will put her back down and go on about my business. If I crouch down to see them, go to put my hand out to throw down scratch or pet one of them, pick something up off the ground or try to pick another chicken up, JoAnne BITES me! Not pecks, I mean open mouth grabs my hand and bites me, leaving bruises. I have read about chickens biting/pecking and someone suggested to sort of swat at them, like to push them back (without hurting them), to establish dominance. I do this and she puffs her chest up and comes at me full force!! Like it just makes it worse. I have also read to try picking them up and gently holding their wattle so that you make their beak touch their chest, keeping their head tilted down for a few moments (dominance again I expect). I do this and she doesn't even seem to care.

One second she is a cuddle bug, sweet as can be and the next she is attacking me what gives?!

 

[nchls school]

Sounds more like jealous of your attention towards the other chickens.

 

[chicksofclaridon]

Sounds more like jealous of your attention towards the other chickens.

That's what I thought at first, too. But she seems to attack even when I'm not interacting with another chicken. Like if I were to reach down beside her to pick something up off the ground or even try to pet her, half the time she will spaz and start biting me!

Chicken psychology is apparently more complex than I thought! Or she just has a screw loose

 

[nchls school]

Yes, a screw loose. But I can tell you I have had similar experiences with different species. Sometimes it's not good to remove all fear. Parrotletts, lovebirds, parakeets, are all species where I and others have experienced the, "I like you-I don't like you" behavior.

 

[Shadrach]

One of my 6 girls, JoAnne the White Leghorn, has been perplexing me lately with her hot and cold attitude. When I let them all out to free range, I walk around with them (hawks are all over the place) for a while and she will come up to me, pecking at my boots or pants because she wants to be held. I pick her up and pet her, and after a minute or two she closes her eyes and goes to sleep (SO cute ). Anyway, after a bit I will put her back down and go on about my business. If I crouch down to see them, go to put my hand out to throw down scratch or pet one of them, pick something up off the ground or try to pick another chicken up, JoAnne BITES me! Not pecks, I mean open mouth grabs my hand and bites me, leaving bruises. I have read about chickens biting/pecking and someone suggested to sort of swat at them, like to push them back (without hurting them), to establish dominance. I do this and she puffs her chest up and comes at me full force!! Like it just makes it worse. I have also read to try picking them up and gently holding their wattle so that you make their beak touch their chest, keeping their head tilted down for a few moments (dominance again I expect). I do this and she doesn't even seem to care.

One second she is a cuddle bug, sweet as can be and the next she is attacking me what gives?!

I'm assuming you don't have a rooster (?)
Every flock has a senior, or dominant member. In the case of a mixed flock it is usually a rooster but in a flock of hens a particular hen will take the senior lead role.
When a rooster wants to attract a hen there are a number of ways he can go about this.
One very common way is to find food. He'll find a particularly tasty bug, nod his head at the ground where the bug is and make a call that lets any hens withing earshot know he has found food. Usually this attracts the hen to his location.
One of the things that help a hen decide which rooster she will mate with is that roosters ability to find food.
Where you have multiple roosters, a rooster who is actively seeking to add hens to his flock or trying to attract hens away from another rooster will carry out this behavior; he will nod at the ground repeatedly and often a junior hen will come to investigate.
So, when you bend down towards the ground, or offer food to one or more of the hens, the senior or dominant hen sees this as an attempt by you to entice one of her flock away from her, much as a senior rooster would view such antics from a competing or junior rooster.
It is the combination of you bending and 'nodding' at the ground and your offering of treats that is upsetting your hen. She thinks you're trying to undermine her authority and entice her hens away from her.

 

[chicksofclaridon]

Ohhh that’s a really good point! She does tend to do it when the other hens come around instead of just one on one. And that’s correct, I don’t have a rooster. Hmm very interesting theory, I will look at it from that perspective next time. Thank you!!

 

[Shadrach]

Incidentally this is one of the reason so may people have problems with roosters attacking them. Their usual contact with their flock is at feeding time and of course the rooster is unable to compete with the person who feeds his hens. As far as the rooster is concerned whoever is feeding his hens is trying to entice them away from him. Normally this would be another rooster and the natural reaction is for the rooster to attack the rooster that is trying to offer his hens treats or food.

 

[The Lazy L]

...One second she is a cuddle bug, sweet as can be and the next she is attacking me what gives?!

Sounds like she's a typical female...

 

[chicksofclaridon]

Sounds like she's a typical female...

LOL!!!

 

[tacothechicken]

I agree w/ shadrach my dominant hen still is iffy about letting our rooster lead since I'm her rooster as far as she's concerned so she'll actually do this whenever he comes to 'pay respect' to me In favor of treats. including biting, wing slapping, chest bumping etc. She thinks him being friendly is a threat to my authority lol. so I have to be sneaky when I cuddle him or she'll full on chase him down. You can try catching her by surprise sometimes and gently but firmly tug her tail like she's in trouble to get her going a few times, eventually she'll figure out you're no nonsense and shouldn't pull biting on you when interacting. My dominant hen tugs on my cloths if im at ground level but only cause she wants attention.