I think one of my chickens is being bullied :(

[brooky]

HI Folks,

We have only had chickens for a week. They are about 20 weeks old.

We have noticed that one of the three of them seems to be on her own quite a bit. We shut them in the coop tonight and there was a real squabble and lots of movement. We opened the door and found one of them in a corner on the floor looking like its on its side. I shooed the others away and it seemed ok. No damage. I have noticed however that it seems to spend the night laying down on the floor and not on the perch. Is that normal?

WHat should we do? We don't like to think one is getting bullied. In the day time they all seem fine. The other two seem to squabble from time to time but leave the one we think is being bullied on its own.

Is this normal behaviour for a new group of chickens as they find their pecking order? Is there anything we should do or look out for?

 

[brooky]

Maybe its ready to lay!? The nest boxes are shut off as the poultry center told us too. We were going to open them up add staw and golf balls tomorrow.

 

[R0SS13]

I got my chickens a week ago and I am having the same problem. I had 4 but was of them appears to be being left out and none of them are roosting. Could you please tell me if you managed to get all the chickens to get along and how.

 

[tinydancer87]

The one chicken is not being allowed to roost...all the noise is from the others pecking and pushing the one off the perches. At least they are the same age...maybe they'll eventually work it out. I put younger chickens in with older ones once, and found all the young ones dead under the perches the next morning.

 

[aubreynoramarie]

maybe you can put in another perch and if possible get another chicken (maybe two or three weeks younger) that could be separated with your less dominant hen for a while.

i dont know if this is bad advice but it worked for me when i had the same issue