First to lay is pecking others?

[Lavendar4]

We have 4 pullets, 19 weeks old. The golden buff (type of red sex-link) started laying 3 days ago and is now pecking 2 of the others, the #1 and #4 chickens, and pulling out feathers! She does not bother #3, but that one is a buckeye and does not put up with it. Is the new layer trying to buck the pecking order because she did this great thing first? Is it hormones? She is the nosey alarmist of the group. I know #4, cuckoo marans, has zero ambition and is a bit slow. But both she and the #1 (Australorp) are way bigger, so I can’t believe they tolerate it. Help!

 

[rosemarythyme]

It's probably hormonal. Onset of laying is sort of like moving from the kid's table at Thanksgiving to the adult's table.

Not sure what your set up looks like, but it may help to provide some hiding spots to give the pecked on birds some relief, or provide other distractions like a pile of dried grass to dig through, just to keep them busy with something else.

 

[Lavendar4]

Thank you. We wondered if the hormones might make her more on edge. About a week before she laid the first egg, she started pacing and seeming uptight.

 

[aart]

Not sure what your set up looks like, but it may help to provide some hiding spots to give the pecked on birds some relief, or provide other distractions like a pile of dried grass to dig through, just to keep them busy with something else.

Ditto Dat!
Do they have plenty of space in coop and run?

 

[Ridgerunner]

With mine they tend to mature when they start laying, The pecking order is a lot more about attitude than size. It's not that unusual for a bantam to outrank a full sized chicken. So I think you are just seeing a change in the pecking order as they mature at different rates. You might see some more of this as the others mature, you might not.

 

[Pghelp]

We have 4 pullets, 19 weeks old. The golden buff (type of red sex-link) started laying 3 days ago and is now pecking 2 of the others, the #1 and #4 chickens, and pulling out feathers! She does not bother #3, but that one is a buckeye and does not put up with it. Is the new layer trying to buck the pecking order because she did this great thing first? Is it hormones? She is the nosey alarmist of the group. I know #4, cuckoo marans, has zero ambition and is a bit slow. But both she and the #1 (Australorp) are way bigger, so I can’t believe they tolerate it. Help!

Thanks for posting this! My pullets just turned 18 weeks and we're watching for who will lay first since they are an assortment of breeds. We noticed some drastic shifts in the pecking order, but haven't seen any eggs yet!

 

[Lavendar4]

Well, I don’t know if the pecking order actually changed, but she definitely has more attitude now. She’s always been greedy and pushing her way first to any treat or food. But the head bird has always been the Australorp and she seems to still be She is actually very calm and acts like a real leader, making sure everyone is in the coop, hanging out with Tillie when she was first laying and all freaked out. Tillie was already #2. Then the buckeye, who takes no junk from anyone and would rather be alone, then Josie, my calm, sweet, formerly pecked bird. Of note: right before the feather pulling started, I had switched to an organic feed. So, I switched back to a feed with animal protein and within 48 hours, zero pecking. It has not returned. Maybe coincidence, maybe Tillie needed something she wasn’t getting? No idea. I’m just glad the pecking and feather pulling stopped! Josie, the pecked cuckoo Maran, is all healed on the skin and the feathers are growing in. Whew. I was beginning to think I was not cut out for chicken raising. But I do love to watch them and listen to them.

 

[Lavendar4]

Ditto Dat!
Do they have plenty of space in coop and run?

They do need more room and we stained the extension today. We currently move them back and forth between 2 areas that gives them about 35 square feet, but I know the more space, the happier. We also noticed that the feather picker really, really loves to forage, so we’re giving them fresh forage material more often now. They all love that.

 

[Lavendar4]

Thanks for posting this! My pullets just turned 18 weeks and we're watching for who will lay first since they are an assortment of breeds. We noticed some drastic shifts in the pecking order, but haven't seen any eggs yet!

Well, I didn’t mean to get a sex-link chicken. I know they don’t live as long due to high egg production. But we got our chicks during the lockdown, and apparently everyone was getting chickens, and the only chicks the Feed and Seed could get were a brown egg layer mix. There was a lot of guesswork trying to pick chicks! We thought the cuckoo Maran was a barred rock, that the sex-link was a RIR, and that the buckeye was an Orpington The only one we got right was the Australorp