Hen at it again

[beachchickie]

I have a hen that acts weird. Like she is going to attack me. I pick her up then when I p/u another hen she charges toward me. I walk away from her slowly talking sweetly and she does OK but the look in her eye tells me she wants to attack me. What is up with her and what should I do? I put on my knee high boots instead of my usual sandals she started acting even more weird. She acted afraid. She back away from me.

 

[mamaKate]

One of my hens charges like that. She doesn't want to attack, she's just really excited and interested in what I'm doing.

 

[beachchickie]

What do you do? I really think she would peck me if I did not move away.

 

[mamaKate]

Stand your ground and see. A chicken peck doesn't hurt much. If she does turn out to be aggressive, shoo her away. She needs to know she can't get by with bullying you. She most likely is just being overly friendly. though.

 

[digitS']

It's probably all instinctual and a reaction to circumstance.

As MamaKate says, stand your ground. The worse thing you could do is allow this 7 pound hen to think she is above you in the pecking order.

Have you ever noticed that when you pick a hen up and then set her down, a more dominant hen often runs over to peck her? Perhaps, some folks think it is a matter of jealousy but I suspect that it's mostly, "She got pecked so I'll peck her some, too! That'll put her in her place!"

The more dominant hen may want to peck you too. It's "Hey! I'm the one who does the pecking around here!"

Dominance . . .

Steve,
chicken boss - standing up to 7 pound chickens, for years

 

[beachchickie]

Ok I will get a pecking I am sure. I picked her up and turned around backwards. She did not like it so much but it took the wind out of her sails for today anyway.