To preface this, everyone is fine. And there was actually no blood shed. And I did spend an awful lot of time on the search engine trying to find out as much as I could prior to "the actual event".
I have three red sex links who are almost a year old that have been laying regularly since July-August. I picked up 4 chicks in early December that I moved out to the big girls coop in early January in their own coop and run inside the big run. Big girls hated them on sight.
About two weeks later, one day I came home from work and two of the chicks had dug out and were in with the big girls and to my surprise, no one was injured. That week-end, I tried supervised visitation, and quickly realized the big girls were out for blood. Dang, those chicks can scream! I tried several more times pretty much with the same result.
I had switched everyone over to flockraiser with some gamebird starter thrown in, in the meantime, there was a flock block in the big run, all kinds of greens, but those girls wanted some fresh young, chicks. Then we had a cold front coming in, and I was not moving the now very big teenage chicks back into the garage. So that afternoon, they were turned loose, and the big girls really just kept chasing them, mostly the lowest hen, probably because she could! no pecking....just lots.....of....Chasing...and...screaming!!!!!! That night I put them to bed in the big coop on the roosts. Following the advice that I could find, for a week I let them have at it without interfering, again hoping the pecking order would work it's way out.
But that one bully hen just wouldn't let up. I tried just locking her up for a while, locking two of them....this wasn't going away.
So I took matters into my own hands. Most of the time the teenagers were hiding in the communal nest box, so they didn't witness the violence. But I have this very scary blue grabber stick after my last back surgery, and I chased those hens around the run until they were clucking and bouncing off the walls, kind of like they were doing to the youngsters, as I am saying "How do you like it????" and I put them in the corner for a "time-out". And the youngsters popped their heads out, and had a dustbath for the first time in probably a week, and the big girls stayed in the corner,
.....and then there was peace.
I still hear an occasional yelp from out there, but I believe order has been restored. And Mr. Stick leans up against the wall of the run in case those bully hens forget how to "play nice"!
Orchidchick aka the chicken whupper
edited to add pics
I have three red sex links who are almost a year old that have been laying regularly since July-August. I picked up 4 chicks in early December that I moved out to the big girls coop in early January in their own coop and run inside the big run. Big girls hated them on sight.
About two weeks later, one day I came home from work and two of the chicks had dug out and were in with the big girls and to my surprise, no one was injured. That week-end, I tried supervised visitation, and quickly realized the big girls were out for blood. Dang, those chicks can scream! I tried several more times pretty much with the same result.
I had switched everyone over to flockraiser with some gamebird starter thrown in, in the meantime, there was a flock block in the big run, all kinds of greens, but those girls wanted some fresh young, chicks. Then we had a cold front coming in, and I was not moving the now very big teenage chicks back into the garage. So that afternoon, they were turned loose, and the big girls really just kept chasing them, mostly the lowest hen, probably because she could! no pecking....just lots.....of....Chasing...and...screaming!!!!!! That night I put them to bed in the big coop on the roosts. Following the advice that I could find, for a week I let them have at it without interfering, again hoping the pecking order would work it's way out.
But that one bully hen just wouldn't let up. I tried just locking her up for a while, locking two of them....this wasn't going away.
So I took matters into my own hands. Most of the time the teenagers were hiding in the communal nest box, so they didn't witness the violence. But I have this very scary blue grabber stick after my last back surgery, and I chased those hens around the run until they were clucking and bouncing off the walls, kind of like they were doing to the youngsters, as I am saying "How do you like it????" and I put them in the corner for a "time-out". And the youngsters popped their heads out, and had a dustbath for the first time in probably a week, and the big girls stayed in the corner,
.....and then there was peace.
I still hear an occasional yelp from out there, but I believe order has been restored. And Mr. Stick leans up against the wall of the run in case those bully hens forget how to "play nice"!
Orchidchick aka the chicken whupper
edited to add pics
Last edited:
