New development................ When I pick up one of the babies, Peckers who is the top of the pecking chain, will peck the one I just held. Only once or twice, doesn't seem to hurt the one that is being pecked. But will do it everytime....any ideas?
I used to have some hens and roosters (and juveniles too) that would come running to attack any chicken that's complaining or being held, or caught in something, or mating, almost always with the one on the bottom copping it.
It's a victim-attacking trait which demonstrates why most people cannot leave injured or ill birds among the flock. It is, however, not endemic to the species to just become obsessed with attacking a vulnerable animal, it's another domestic neurosis we've bred into them. Cannibalism is the same, under intensive commercial conditions it's an adaption which increases odds of survival. In the wild, attacking and killing (whether or not they end up consuming) ill or injured flockmates increases the risk of transmitting disease and receiving injury themselves, it's not a wild trait due to the risks.
This mentality shows up in even newly hatched chicks if present in the family line. Until one's had a clutch of chicks attacking and destroying their sibling chicks, sometimes while their victims are still hatching, days before actual hunger has become part of their life experience/motivation, or just massacring one another, it's easy to dismiss these traits as not being a problem due to apparent mildness of expression, but they are not worth breeding on unless scalped and mutilated chickens are part of the overall chicken keeping experience you're willing to have in future.
Mildly expressed negative traits in my experience are not to be tolerated (as I once used to) because they strongly trend towards suddenly becoming far more severe in expression over time, either in the actual individual that first shows it or in their subsequent generations of descendants.
The less vicious pecking, (not outright bashing/tearing/ripping at) of targets identified as vulnerable, while just a milder variation of this mental trait, still indicates that this is a chicken that has the trait to bully hurt or sick animals. May or may not be linked to the cannibal trait depending on the chook in question.
I find most negative traits are linked, they're an expression of an aberrant mindset and warped instincts as a whole, not in isolation. This trait's a risk because last thing you need when trying to help a damaged or entangled animal is another animal jumping in there and raining down punishment. At first I tolerated it but chickens with this mentality often attack humans too, either deliberately or accidentally in their eagerness to damage the already upset victim target, so children picking up chickens to hold were being attacked, and roosters or hens would come over and savage hens that were in the process of mating, risking their eyes... Not a trait I put up with for safety reasons. I bred these animals to begin with and found negative traits, no matter what they are, tend to snowball in future generations, for whatever reason. Culling it out works amazingly well for permanent removal.
I culled out that attack-the-vulnerable/assisting-in-victimizing trait years ago, and don't have it anymore, it's been quite a few generations since I last saw it. It's very much just another heritable negative trait, easily removed. Those that don't do it won't breed it on. Now I can rest assured that ill or injured animals are safe to remain among the flock without bullying because it really is just a mental trait of some lines, not an inherent instinct present throughout the species.
As far as the 'lapdog' mentality goes, choose your breeder wisely to get the birds you want, don't pay any mind to breed claims about temperament if the breeder you're buying from doesn't. You can get known aggressive breeds from someone who doesn't tolerate that mentality and find them as docile as any other breed's best expression. I've known plenty of unfriendly examples of various supposedly docile, tame, friendly breeds. It all depends on what the breeder of the last few generations was selecting for. Family line, or strain, over breed itself, is the biggest guarantee you get on temperament and performance.
As 1chickendog142 said, nests should be lower than the perches otherwise they sleep as high as they can get usually, that's a common instinct, but not too many of my hens actually want to lay on the ground. (Which is acquired behavior since they're obviously naturally a ground nesting species).
I find mostly only sick hens lay on the ground, or those under sufficient social stress to drop the egg anywhere rather than run the gauntlet trying to get onto the preferred nest (yep, often it's not a shortage of available nests, just favoritism lol) but I do provide a range of nesting areas just in case. Broodies or nest-possessive hens can cause some issues there.
Best wishes.
