Ganging Up

[christinea]

Morning All,
I have 6 hens. Five are standard size and one, Mabel, is a bantam. I know now that having just one little one was a bad idea. She has one friend in an EE, but the other four are mean to her. She has to be constantly wary of her space whether she is free-ranging or in the coop for fear that she will be pecked. Usually she is minding her own business, a hen want to be where she is and if she doesn't move fast enough, she gets a nip. I have had pinless peepers on the 4 meanies for over a month now and nothing has changed. Today I saw our Barred Rock pecking Mabel out of the coveted nesting box. The BR didn't seem to want to lay, but Mabel did. Poor Mabel. This isn't typical chicken behavior, is it?

 

[Odelia]

Are they making your bantam bleed, or pulling out her feathers? If not I would not feel as bad as you do. There will always be a chicken at the bottom. Even if they are all the same size. So yes it is normal chicken behavior. Did you raise them all together? I have found that my chicken are more accepting of other chickens that shared the same brooder. I have a mixed flock and two of my girls are bantams. One was raised with my older girls and one with my younger set of girls. The first does not have any problems in the flock and the second is my lowest bird in the flock. My two bantams that are the same breed don't particularly get along. It has just as much to do with personality as it does size. I have a friend with 15-20 birds a few bantam cochins in the mix and one is a girl. She is her top hen out of all of her birds. I believe that she was from her first set of chicks so as new ones came into her flock this bantam had already established herself as the top hen and no one ever took her place. She is the only bantam hen the other bantam is one of her roosters. The rooster is not her top rooster. Though he gets along with the buff orpington rooster just fine and there isn't any rooster fights happening.

 

[christinea]

Thanks, Odelia. No, no bleeding, but I think a few feathers are missing from the back of her head and she had a very minor wound behind her eye earlier this week. That's what really prompted me to ask. I didn't realize being at the bottom meant continual bullying.
That's so interesting about your friend's top bantam! I had heard that size doesn't matter. It's also helpful to know that if we brought in another bantam they wouldn't necessarily be friends.
To answer your question, Mabel was raised with the BR (!) and the EE, but not with the other 3. I've been surprised (and honestly broken-hearted) that the BR turned on her- her own sister! The 3 new hens rule the roost with the BR. Mabel actually pecks at the EE, who never fights back, but the others don't mind our EE a bit. She can eat with them and be wherever she pleases. Long reply- sorry!