How to stop chicken from attacking me?

[flockoffour]

No, I do not have a rooster, but unfortunatley I am not allowed to have one in my zone. She does seem to be taking on the position of a rooster, though

 

[lynn1961]

No, I do not have a rooster, but unfortunatley I am not allowed to have one in my zone. She does seem to be taking on the position of a rooster, though

When all else fails, give her negative re enforcement for bad behavior, a good squirt with a water gun, a few times and she will learn that the water gun squirt is not what she likes and will avoid you when you have the water gun with you and she can see it.

 

[Aumlet]

I had a Buff Orpington who was an attack-chicken. I make a general practice to have my chickens associate me with my food, this one was just being a witch. What worked with her, and I don't know that it would work with every chicken, is to peck her back with my finger if she attacked me when I was going about my business, but never chase her. If she tried biting me while on the nest, I ignored it (didn't withdraw in fear, didn't attack back). My basic feeling was: I won't hassle you, but if you hassle me I will defend myself. It took a little while, but she got the idea and we began living in peace.

Oddly, she went broody in her 2nd year and I gave her eggs since then has been really sweet.

Being a mama mellowed her out. Bizarre, but there ya go.

 

[flockoffour]

Thanks again for the advice, everyone. I tried chasing her around, but she still got worse (sorry my camera was out of batteries) I have been (for the most part) ignoring her and not giving her much of a chance to bite me, and when she comes close to me I continue to ignore her........ and make sure my hands are out of reach!

 

[Goldendazy]

I have a hen that pecks the backs of my legs HARD... I've been told that I should give her a boot to make her fear me but I don't have the heart to do that..

I try to distract her but she usually does it as I'm leaving the chicken yard with my back turned.. She's a fistey one...I keep hoping she will become nicer like the other hens... We do not have any Roosters.

 

[galanie]

Surprised no one has mentioned a long soak in a crock pot. I sure hate doing that with a hen, though.

 

[SRHH]

How funny..." a long soak in a crock pot"! If you can, try picking her up and petting her, that worked for showing my roosters who is boss. They were totally humiliated to be cuddled in front of their hens and left me alone. You may have to do that more than once. Or you may just have an ornery chicken, in which the crock pot is the best answer.

 

[Debbie18]

I also have this problem. I have 3 hens which I got as chicks. I don't have a rooster and wasn't keen on getting one because in the past we had a rooster that became particularly aggressive. They are 11 mths old. I noticed that it seemed to begin with the hen pecking the back of my legs or toes when I went to get the eggs. I mostly tried to ignore it or pushed her away with my leg. I do think that it is becoming worse. Although they have a large coop and run, I let the chickens out into the big yard sometimes and yesterday when I let them out I leaned down to pat the hen on the back. She squatted and allowed me to do this. I patted her for a moment and when I stopped she turned around and started pecking at me, agressively, I pushed her away a bit and she started to fly at me. I have to admit I did stomp my feet and 'raaaahed' at her. I knew that I shouldn't run or anything and tried not show that it frightened me, although it did. I have done some reading on it since then and have found that some advice is to chase the hen and yell etc and some is to pick the hen up and carry her around for awhile each time she becomes aggressive. This is meant to put you on top of the pecking order. I believe she is taking on the role of the rooster maybe. I am going to try the option of picking her up and carrying her around and am hoping this will work. I don't want to dread goin g to get the eggs and dont want to stop them from coming out into the big yard. Can anybody tell me if this has worked for them? Thank You Debbie

 

[BBQJOE]

Quote: Squirt gun?
Heck, I'd get a super soaker and teach that bird a lesson.

 

[mimsy]

She sounds like our derpy fluid gender polish chicken. She/he grew spurs, try's a very terrible crow sometimes, but still lays eggs about 3 times a week. She respects the humans though because we catch her and cuddle with her when she gets too roudy with us. But she has it out with the pitbulls rear end often still. Though she usually looses when the dog gets happy and wags it's tail knocking her end over end.