Me again!
I know I'm asking a lot of questions, but being new to this, I see behavior I'm just not sure about, and haven't really been able to find answers to. I have 1 roo and 4 confirmed hens, 1 of which is a little older and 3 about 8 months old, and 2 unconfirmed youngins, about 3 or 4 months old. The two young ones seem to be bullied by every other bird. We're now letting them out every day to roam our mountain property. We knew they were taking some heat from the rooster before then, but since they were able to eat and there were no physical signs of abuse, we let it go. I noticed today when they all returned to the coop at night, after I closed the doors they were being pecked at and chased away from more popular spaces in the coop...by just about every other chicken. Pecks here and there, and squawked at. They would then run off in another direction, trying to come back at some point only to be chased away again.
I know there is a pecking order in play. But to what point? Do I only worry if there are obvious physical signs? Or should I be concerned at this point?
I know I'm asking a lot of questions, but being new to this, I see behavior I'm just not sure about, and haven't really been able to find answers to. I have 1 roo and 4 confirmed hens, 1 of which is a little older and 3 about 8 months old, and 2 unconfirmed youngins, about 3 or 4 months old. The two young ones seem to be bullied by every other bird. We're now letting them out every day to roam our mountain property. We knew they were taking some heat from the rooster before then, but since they were able to eat and there were no physical signs of abuse, we let it go. I noticed today when they all returned to the coop at night, after I closed the doors they were being pecked at and chased away from more popular spaces in the coop...by just about every other chicken. Pecks here and there, and squawked at. They would then run off in another direction, trying to come back at some point only to be chased away again.
I know there is a pecking order in play. But to what point? Do I only worry if there are obvious physical signs? Or should I be concerned at this point?
