Hen mounting another hen

[MotherofHens5819]

Hello I just watched one of our hens mounts another of our hens. She is more aggressive than I am comfortable with and wanted to know if this is normal behavior. I separated her from the flock for the moment so she can’t get to anyone, she is the dominant for sure but I was not prepared to see her mount another hen and basically play act the mating dance.

Should I leave things be or should I be concerned she may harm the other chickens?

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Do you not have a rooster?

 

[littlecoopnextdoor]

my dominant hen has done this a couple times, but not regularly. just being head hen lol

 

[fluffycrow]

Well she's not harming them, is she? How old are they?

 

[SwampPrincessChick]

A hen mounting another female is caused by the dominant hen wanting to, well, show her dominance. This is more likely to happen in a flock that has no rooster, as the head hen will often take the role—crowing, mounting and attacking humans can take place afterward. Your dominant hen is doing no harm to the other hens by mounting them as long as she is not being too aggressive and injuring them, but you would notice that if there was blood or any other signs of an injury.

 

[townchicks]

This is a natural dominance behavior, but it can escalate. Watch carefully , if she is not pecking hard and drawing blood, you can let it play out. I have a BR that was doing that to my old hen and hurting her. I jailed the BR within sight of the rest, it took a couple of weeks, but they get along well now.

 

[MotherofHens5819]

Do you not have a rooster?

No no roosters

 

[MotherofHens5819]

Alright well I saw it happen then sort of
Dominated her by holding her down a moment then jailed her for some time before releasing her sgain. We will keep
An eye that she isn’t drawing blood but man she is a mini biatch not gonna lie!!

 

[MAT10]

Same problem here with my BO mounting my Red Sexlink. This time I found minor blood. I cleaned her up but now what do I do??? RSL hardly has any wing feathers & she lets you know she's tender. She's been featherless all summer but I dont know why. Not a molt. She is at the bottom of the pecking order

I have a saddle on my SLW as her backside is bare & they do occassionally peck at it. Tender obviously but no blood drawn on her.

New at this. No rooster in the flock. 10 hens. BO is 3 & hasn't laid since last Nov. RSL is 2, laying nearly every day but her eggs have become very thin & always broken now. So very sad. Should I separate the BO for a time?

How can I help her with the loss of feathers?

 

[Squawkers]

Same problem here with my BO mounting my Red Sexlink. This time I found minor blood. I cleaned her up but now what do I do??? RSL hardly has any wing feathers & she lets you know she's tender. She's been featherless all summer but I dont know why. Not a molt. She is at the bottom of the pecking order

I have a saddle on my SLW as her backside is bare & they do occassionally peck at it. Tender obviously but no blood drawn on her.

New at this. No rooster in the flock. 10 hens. BO is 3 & hasn't laid since last Nov. RSL is 2, laying nearly every day but her eggs have become very thin & always broken now. So very sad. Should I separate the BO for a time?

How can I help her with the loss of feathers?View attachment 3999594View attachment 3999595View attachment 3999597View attachment 3999600View attachment 3999596

Might be best if you started a new thread to get more answers. But I would separate the aggressor for a while. Long enough for the red sexlink to heal and hopefully mess up the pecking order to cause the Orpington to calm down a little. I am not entirely sure that it would work, just what I would try.