Dville Chix
In the Brooder
- Jul 5, 2018
- 22
- 15
- 34
I will pose my question first, since the back story is a long one:
What should I do with my suddenly turned vicious dominant hen? Our rooster has also turned nasty--although that has been a longer, slower process. I am tempted to slaughter them both, but am reluctant to do so. The rooster is a good protector and we lost several hens to predators before bringing him on board. The hen is one of our best layers.
Now the back-story: We have a "primary flock" of 5 birds: 1 rooster, 4 hens-- all about 15 months old. We have a "secondary" flock of three more chickens (18-week hen and two 6 week-old chicks) in an isolation cage next to the main coop that are in the process of being integrated to the main flock. On top of that, we have three 1.5-week old chicks in a brood box inside the house. The lowest rank hen (an olive-egger) from the primary flock was broody. Just under 2 weeks ago we gave the broody OE 6 eggs to finish hatching that had been in an incubator for 18 days. She accepted them, but did such a terrible job as a first-time mom, that we had to evacuate the surviving 3 chicks to care for them indoors: 1 chick with a broken leg/wound infection, 1 chick suffering starvation/dehydration and 1 chick that is mostly ok that actually hatched after the OE abandoned the eggs for hours. As of three days ago two of the chicks were recovered enough to have supervised visits with mama. We would remove mama from the coop/pen and let her wander around nearby with the chicks. She would happily engage with the chicks and teach them how to scratch for food and hunt insects. After a while we would return mama to the coop/pen with the main flock and take the chicks back indoors. Two days ago the dominant hen of the main flock (a barrred rock) began harassing the OE. Much more aggressive than previously seen, and a goodly number of neck feathers lost by mama OE. We assumed that the lower ranking hen was probably still jazzed up on broody hormones and was not submitting to the dominant hen sufficiently. We decided that it would work itself out and left mama in the coop with the others. Yesterday the aggression seemed worse, but mama was submitting and trying to steer clear of the BR. Late in the afternoon I checked on the pen and found the OE missing a LOT more feathers and a bloody 1" hole in her neck down to the muscle. We removed the OE from the pen so that we could administer first aid to her. We also removed the aggressive BR from the pen for fear that she would attack other flockmates. After treating the OE's wounds we put her into the brooder with her three chicks and let her spend the night with them. We were afraid to return her to the flock right away since the others might pick at her wounds. Mama and the chicks are getting along well, even the broken-leg chick who hobbles around and sneaks under mama. The BR was kept outside the pen for the rest of the day yesterday and spent last night in the pen while the other flock members spent the night locked in the coop. At 5:30 am I removed the BR from the pen and put her in an enclosure inside our garage. After removing the BR, I let the rest of the main flock regain access to the pen. All this drama has the rooster jazzed up. He has occasionally been aggressive, but with two of his four hens missing from the flock he is just livid. His hackles went up as soon as I approached the pen and when I tried to service the water and food in the pen he attacked me. I know I can't let that pass, so I pulled him out and held him firmly in my arms for 10-15 minutes, but the unnerved hens were crying so much he never really calmed down.
In summary:
1 pissed off and aggressive rooster in the regular pen with 2 anxious mid-rank hens.
3 newbie birds in an isolation cage next to the main pen--Also very anxious.
1 nasty BR being held in isolation in the garage.
1 wounded OE in a broodbox with 3 chicks in varying states of health.
We are wondering if the BR is jealous of the OE and her chicks? We are now suspicious that the BR or rooster might be responsible for injuring the chick with the broken leg. We had assumed that the chick got stepped on, but the placement and nature of the fracture would be consistent with being grabbed in a beak and flung. The BR has a history of being pushy and dominant, but she has never inflicted bleeding wounds before. The rooster did not intervene to protect the OE inside the coop/pen, but he may have been doing that during their free-range time yesterday morning. I had noticed that the rooster had stuck close to the BR and had allowed the other three hens (including the OE) to range in a separate group. He usually keeps them all together.
Our current plan is to set up another isolation cage (buying another dog crate today) for the BR and to return the OE to the main flock in a day or two after her wounds scab over and we can be confident that there is no infection. Assuming things settle down, we will probably try to integrate the newbies in another week and re-integrate the BR a week after that. Not sure when the 3 baby chicks will get integrated.
Any comments on this plan? Any thoughts on what might have brought this on? Should we cull the aggressive birds now or wait to see if things settle down?
What should I do with my suddenly turned vicious dominant hen? Our rooster has also turned nasty--although that has been a longer, slower process. I am tempted to slaughter them both, but am reluctant to do so. The rooster is a good protector and we lost several hens to predators before bringing him on board. The hen is one of our best layers.
Now the back-story: We have a "primary flock" of 5 birds: 1 rooster, 4 hens-- all about 15 months old. We have a "secondary" flock of three more chickens (18-week hen and two 6 week-old chicks) in an isolation cage next to the main coop that are in the process of being integrated to the main flock. On top of that, we have three 1.5-week old chicks in a brood box inside the house. The lowest rank hen (an olive-egger) from the primary flock was broody. Just under 2 weeks ago we gave the broody OE 6 eggs to finish hatching that had been in an incubator for 18 days. She accepted them, but did such a terrible job as a first-time mom, that we had to evacuate the surviving 3 chicks to care for them indoors: 1 chick with a broken leg/wound infection, 1 chick suffering starvation/dehydration and 1 chick that is mostly ok that actually hatched after the OE abandoned the eggs for hours. As of three days ago two of the chicks were recovered enough to have supervised visits with mama. We would remove mama from the coop/pen and let her wander around nearby with the chicks. She would happily engage with the chicks and teach them how to scratch for food and hunt insects. After a while we would return mama to the coop/pen with the main flock and take the chicks back indoors. Two days ago the dominant hen of the main flock (a barrred rock) began harassing the OE. Much more aggressive than previously seen, and a goodly number of neck feathers lost by mama OE. We assumed that the lower ranking hen was probably still jazzed up on broody hormones and was not submitting to the dominant hen sufficiently. We decided that it would work itself out and left mama in the coop with the others. Yesterday the aggression seemed worse, but mama was submitting and trying to steer clear of the BR. Late in the afternoon I checked on the pen and found the OE missing a LOT more feathers and a bloody 1" hole in her neck down to the muscle. We removed the OE from the pen so that we could administer first aid to her. We also removed the aggressive BR from the pen for fear that she would attack other flockmates. After treating the OE's wounds we put her into the brooder with her three chicks and let her spend the night with them. We were afraid to return her to the flock right away since the others might pick at her wounds. Mama and the chicks are getting along well, even the broken-leg chick who hobbles around and sneaks under mama. The BR was kept outside the pen for the rest of the day yesterday and spent last night in the pen while the other flock members spent the night locked in the coop. At 5:30 am I removed the BR from the pen and put her in an enclosure inside our garage. After removing the BR, I let the rest of the main flock regain access to the pen. All this drama has the rooster jazzed up. He has occasionally been aggressive, but with two of his four hens missing from the flock he is just livid. His hackles went up as soon as I approached the pen and when I tried to service the water and food in the pen he attacked me. I know I can't let that pass, so I pulled him out and held him firmly in my arms for 10-15 minutes, but the unnerved hens were crying so much he never really calmed down.
In summary:
1 pissed off and aggressive rooster in the regular pen with 2 anxious mid-rank hens.
3 newbie birds in an isolation cage next to the main pen--Also very anxious.
1 nasty BR being held in isolation in the garage.
1 wounded OE in a broodbox with 3 chicks in varying states of health.
We are wondering if the BR is jealous of the OE and her chicks? We are now suspicious that the BR or rooster might be responsible for injuring the chick with the broken leg. We had assumed that the chick got stepped on, but the placement and nature of the fracture would be consistent with being grabbed in a beak and flung. The BR has a history of being pushy and dominant, but she has never inflicted bleeding wounds before. The rooster did not intervene to protect the OE inside the coop/pen, but he may have been doing that during their free-range time yesterday morning. I had noticed that the rooster had stuck close to the BR and had allowed the other three hens (including the OE) to range in a separate group. He usually keeps them all together.
Our current plan is to set up another isolation cage (buying another dog crate today) for the BR and to return the OE to the main flock in a day or two after her wounds scab over and we can be confident that there is no infection. Assuming things settle down, we will probably try to integrate the newbies in another week and re-integrate the BR a week after that. Not sure when the 3 baby chicks will get integrated.
Any comments on this plan? Any thoughts on what might have brought this on? Should we cull the aggressive birds now or wait to see if things settle down?
