I wonder, is there any use in me trying to figure out the pecking order before they mature? I know they start to establish a pecking order amongst themselves even as chicks as young as day olds, but do they challenge each other more often as pullets and settle once they mature (as long as nothing shifts the balance, such as adding more chickens to the flock)?
I am completely at a loss for who's the "boss" at this point, though I also haven't had much time to study chicken behavior yet so I'm not even sure where to start looking for clues.
All I know is that Sybil is left behind a lot, and she sometimes even seems reluctant to go with them. I'm guessing she's at the bottom rung. She isn't bullied but she's almost always last to anything; last in and last out of the coop, last to start eating, last to follow when they move to another foraging spot. She gets pecked on the head or back a lot.
Yesterday I picked Sybil up and she absolutely lost her mind. She was okay for a minute and then was flapping and clawing at me to get away. Aliss was watching this happen, and when I put Sybil down, Aliss went after her and pecked at her head and back a few times... It was almost like she was saying "calm down, don't treat our weird looking tall flock member like that!"
Or, knowing that some chickens think being picked up is mating (though Sybil didn't shake herself when I put her down), maybe Aliss (if she sees herself as a top "hen") got angry that a low ranking flock member "mated"? They're not even laying eggs or crouching yet but I wonder if that's a possibility.
They all have their moments where they fly/jump at each other with legs forward, hackles raised... It's so funny to watch
Also, with Aliss, she usually is the first in the coop in the evening. She likes to inspect it, it seems like. She'll walk and look around for a few minutes before she starts making what I call her "bedtime whine". The majority of the time, if another of the girls hops up before Aliss has deemed the coop safe for roosting, that girl will get a hard peck on the head and be chased out of the coop.
That seems like top hen behavior to me, but sometimes when challenged to a staring contest by Gytha or Magrat for example (they're the "bratty" ones), Aliss will be the one to back down first.
...I should start a logbook of their interactions. YAY STATISTICS!
Things take time to get established, plus circumstances can change it up.Now Sybil AND Aliss got separated from the others and when they were reunited Gytha gave Aliss a peck on the head!
The way chickens do that reminds me of an older sibling/little sibling relationship. You get yelled at and a punch on the arm for doing something stupid because I love you, type thing
Among the three Buff Orpington “Spuds” Anna became the bottom chick as she took sick at 7 weeks, and sequestered herself in a dark corner all submissive and out of it, half-blind, and lost a few weeks of growth so was smaller for a long time. Diane and Tedi were pals, with Tedi at the top. Diane is kind of a nut case now and doesn’t seem to understand boundaries or respect her elders, she’s not very popular and is always getting corrected and chased out. She’s at the bottom. I’m keeping an eye on her to make sure she is getting enough to eat, it’s been cold, and all three are in a heavy molt and she is skinny.
The second thing I’ll note is that it sounds like Gytha is your lead pullet/hen right now. The one who does lots of bossing around is most likely the 2nd, like the enforcer for the lead hen. The lead hen just has to sit back and supervise. Since you observed Gytha giving Alisa a little reminder that’s what it sounds like from here.
Any of them laying yet? It is often observed that first to lay gets a bump in standing. This helped Tedi but not Diane. So who in your group is laying?
It amazes me
