Dolly Parton Keeps Jumping on my Head!! - May be Evil

[portlandfarmer]

My Rhode Island Red keeps jumping on my head and it is not like these other posts I read on here. Other people have the issue of sweet chicks jumping on their head and thinks it's cute. This is not the case for me! I got her 6 months ago and she has not laid an egg yet. We don't know if she is a hen or a rooster. We think she is a hen because she pecks at the other girls while they lay their eggs and from what I understand, roosters do not do that.

Today, I walked out and everything was knocked off the shelves on the mud porch, which I cleaned up. I walked into the backyard and saw that Dolly jumped the fence. When I brought her back in, she tried to jump on my head and when I knocked her down, she did it again! Her claws hurt like heck when they dug into my head! I stood inside the door and called my fiance to tell him what happened. Dolly went into the mud porch and began knocking everything off the shelves while watching me through the door window. I felt like I was in the movie The Birds, but with chickens.

I decided to lock her in the coop to leave myself and the other girls in peace. In the process, she tried to jump on my head again!! She has not always been so friendly, and she has tried the head-jumping before but not this aggressively. I don't know if she is trying to lay her first egg therefore she is acting crazy, or what her deal is. I've grown up around chickens and I've never seen this before with our hens or roosters. Please help!

 

[gale65]

Maybe she is a rooster. Can you post a picture of her?

 

[ChickenPeep]

Agreed, please post a picture.
That is definitely an odd behavior!

 

[portlandfarmer]

Here is a picture of Dolly...

 

[CindyJeann]

I had a hen that would jump on me when she was trying to get away from the rooster. Also once after we had a brush with coyotes I had one who wanted to roost on me.

 

[TexasLisa]

Absolutely beautiful and very innocent-looking!!

Lisa

 

[BeulahBreezes]

I'd say 'hen'...................

 

[portlandfarmer]

I found out a couple days ago she is definitely a hen! It must have been a painful transition because she was in this crazy phase for at least 5 days. She is now laying eggs and is somewhat okay with getting picked up which before she began laying her absolute least favorite thing to do was getting picked up. Thank you all for your feedback!

 

[MsBagawkbagawk]

Congrats on her first egg!

I have a RIR and BO that do that out of affection, although I like it better when it's my bantams. My d'Uccle (avatar) Sophie jumped on my head once and started scratching around, then she settled down, I realized then that the coop door had blown shut and she couldn't get in to lay an egg! Since the coop at my old house had the standard chicken house roof (one side slightly higher than the other with windows), she kept jumping up and trying to get through the windows!

 

[portlandfarmer]

That is funny you would say that because there are times we will be in the house and we will hear a loud thump and when we run to the window to see what happened, we will see Dolly standing there confused. She tries to go through our windows! Also we are now having the issue that she is picking on one of our smaller chickens, Nancy. Before, Nancy Sinatra would stay with Shania Twain but Shania passed away last week by our neighbors dog... Nancy is now trying to get in with the other group (Dolly and peeps) but Dolly runs after her, pecks at her, and won't share food. Nancy is walking on eggshells every time she is trying to get food while Dolly is around - I just hope they find their places otherwise I will need to do some chicken-trading.