Jealousy over holding other hens?

[sailordani]

Hello, I have an odd situation.

I have 4 barnevelder hens that just turned a year old. All are happy and laying, and are allowed to free range a couple hours daily. They get along rather well, despite the normal mild peck towards each other here and there. Before their first molt, only 2 of the 4 really enjoyed being picked up and held. Now that they are finished molting, all 4 seem to enjoy being touched and briefly held.

Today, something odd just happened. The lowest lady on the totem pole fully charged and bit the comb (drawing blood) of one of the higher ranking hens after I put her down from a brief cuddle. I was shocked, as the attacker has definitely been the most meek in the past. From now on, I will look left and right before putting a hen down if she is near, so that they can avoid her wrath.

I really did not enjoy the little scuffle. Anything else I can do to make sure a jealous episode doesn't happen again?

 

[Sc_chickengirl]

Hmmm that's interesting. Sometimes they fight over who gets to be petted first but I guess your hen was just feeling very touchy. She was probably just in a bad mood.

 

[Jenessa_096]

Sometimes when I’m holding one of my girls some of the other ladies will peck me until I let them go!

 

[rosemarythyme]

It's normal but I don't know the reasons why they behave like that. If I pick up a bird and another begins eyeing me, I just turn my back or move away so I can release the bird I'm holding while blocking the view of the other one.

 

[3KillerBs]

It's normal.

Their motivation is mysterious, but the behavior is 100% normal.

 

[blackfishfin]

Hello, I have an odd situation.

I have 4 barnevelder hens that just turned a year old. All are happy and laying, and are allowed to free range a couple hours daily. They get along rather well, despite the normal mild peck towards each other here and there. Before their first molt, only 2 of the 4 really enjoyed being picked up and held. Now that they are finished molting, all 4 seem to enjoy being touched and briefly held.

Today, something odd just happened. The lowest lady on the totem pole fully charged and bit the comb (drawing blood) of one of the higher ranking hens after I put her down from a brief cuddle. I was shocked, as the attacker has definitely been the most meek in the past. From now on, I will look left and right before putting a hen down if she is near, so that they can avoid her wrath.

I really did not enjoy the little scuffle. Anything else I can do to make sure a jealous episode doesn't happen again?

I have a similar situation with one of my hens! I think that these hens are both jealous, but I'm no expert.

 

[Ascholten]

Let me lazarous this thread.
I recently lost one of mine and like a dumbass, went out and immediately got 2 more.
*see that chicken math thing in action here*
One, I forget the name, I want to say black sussex? supposed to be black larger and poofty.
the other a barred rock, a smaller one. BOTH are supposed to be essentially lap chickens.

Well the little BR, is quite timid, a bit smaller than the others as well. Both the newbies are 13 going on 14 weeks old as of this writing, so are not yet fully integrated with them.

Anyways the original 3 are still in their nitpicky bitchy phase and I assume it will probably go on about another month until the young ones get a little more size on them to where they are about the size of the existing ones which been around since the beginning of covid so 2 to 3 years old?

To the point, the little barred rock is just adorable, I absolutely already fell in love with her. Ill pick her up on my knee and she'll sit there and want to try to give me kisses or gently pick at my beard or knee or whatever while I pet her. It's all open handedly too, there is no caging, she is free to hop off at any time but does not. TO the point. one of the other hens, gets her nose all of out of joint when I pet the little ones. WHen they are on their own she gets picky towards them, not mean but chases them,but when I show them attention she gets all bent, she'll try butting in, stand there moaning etc and trying to nudge her way into my reach. She never acted this way before, I mean if I reached out I could grab her and pick her up and kerfluffle her when she squats to make her all ruffly and walk off all happy but she's like actively trying get my attention, when it was sort of a non issue before.

DO chickens get jealous to this degree? Is this potentially going to cause issues in the future that might lead to violence if I don't 'kerfluffle' them all equally? It's already bad enough with the one inside whom i have to hide out of sight when I do this but do I need a private cuddle room now for a frickin chickin?

it would be nice if I could get paco to be nice with the little one, and I may try introducing them at a later date but i find it both amusing, yet worried I am creating a problem that may lead to fights.

aaron

 

[FunClucks]

Let me lazarous this thread.
I recently lost one of mine and like a dumbass, went out and immediately got 2 more.
*see that chicken math thing in action here*
One, I forget the name, I want to say black sussex? supposed to be black larger and poofty.
the other a barred rock, a smaller one. BOTH are supposed to be essentially lap chickens.

Well the little BR, is quite timid, a bit smaller than the others as well. Both the newbies are 13 going on 14 weeks old as of this writing, so are not yet fully integrated with them.

Anyways the original 3 are still in their nitpicky bitchy phase and I assume it will probably go on about another month until the young ones get a little more size on them to where they are about the size of the existing ones which been around since the beginning of covid so 2 to 3 years old?

To the point, the little barred rock is just adorable, I absolutely already fell in love with her. Ill pick her up on my knee and she'll sit there and want to try to give me kisses or gently pick at my beard or knee or whatever while I pet her. It's all open handedly too, there is no caging, she is free to hop off at any time but does not. TO the point. one of the other hens, gets her nose all of out of joint when I pet the little ones. WHen they are on their own she gets picky towards them, not mean but chases them,but when I show them attention she gets all bent, she'll try butting in, stand there moaning etc and trying to nudge her way into my reach. She never acted this way before, I mean if I reached out I could grab her and pick her up and kerfluffle her when she squats to make her all ruffly and walk off all happy but she's like actively trying get my attention, when it was sort of a non issue before.

DO chickens get jealous to this degree? Is this potentially going to cause issues in the future that might lead to violence if I don't 'kerfluffle' them all equally? It's already bad enough with the one inside whom i have to hide out of sight when I do this but do I need a private cuddle room now for a frickin chickin?

it would be nice if I could get paco to be nice with the little one, and I may try introducing them at a later date but i find it both amusing, yet worried I am creating a problem that may lead to fights.

aaron

I'm sorry you're dealing with this behavior, and I don't have a lot of advice for you. But your post was hilarious, thank you for sharing! Sounds like you have a jealous / possessive chicken. I've heard that the thing to do is show them attention equally, because they notice if you don't. Mine do seem to notice.

The only jealousy(?) I have in my flock is when they're about to roost for the night, I have two flocks in the process of integration. The younger flock likes to fly up and perch on my arm (they'd prefer my head, but we're not doing that), and I'll pet them and talk to them. If one chicken is on my arm, the others want on there too. As soon as I put one down, another flies up at me. There will be 3 or 4 at a time with their necks all stretched out, and I can tell they're just choosing their moment to take off.

After dark fully hits, and I've set them all back onto the roost enough times, they usually calm down. But I must admit, petting those chickens is the highlight of my day. Other times of day, they're usually too busy doing chicken things, and will permit it, but squack if I handle them, and I'm like, seriously? I'm the most awesome person ever around roosting time, but in the middle of the day my touch and/or presence is an excuse to get all worked up??? Maybe they're just bored...

 

[Ascholten]

This one has turned into a little monster. I seriously think she thinks Im mother hen.,
That might part my fault though (gee whudathunkit)
every time I go out there now she wants to hop up in my lap or worse, she wants to hop on my back or shoulder, then she wants to play / preen with my hair, with my beard, with my eyelashes.

She has NO idea what she is setting up. I TRY to explain to her, HONEY !!! if that one inside sees yo doing this, I can't protect you anymore, he'll probably try to kill you, messing with HIS human !! She likes to be held or sit in your lap too. I can see my dumb nappy ass heading out for bird diapers here soon so she can come inside too

i think where I screwed up was, one of the bigger girls was being real nasty so I snatched her up, talked soft to her while I swatted at the big girl, then put her down and let her eat, while holding the big girl at bay so she could not get to the little one. After about a minute, the big one put up a fuss and walked off elsewhere.

Overall they both are integrating well into the coop. I no longer keep them in separate cages anymore. I kind of joined the cages, and at night they all sleep in the main coop. The little ones started out sleeping in the brood box but have learned on their own, to turn their butts so they poop OUTSIDE the brood box, so thats nice. They won't eat with each other yet but the little ones are getting bolder and will stand right there and watch them eat, and occasionally run in snatch a crumb before being shooed off by one of the bigger girls so Im thinking about another week or so we should be totally good.

The barred rock is going to be a real small bird though overall I am thinking so hope that won't be a long term problem, with her timidness but have a feeling eventually she'll just be the omega and they'll all get along fine. Another week or two puts some more girth on the other one too so she's real close in size to the existing girls and should be able to hold her own in the final squabble over who's who, when it comes. overall I don't have any real bully's anymore so don't think ill have a real problem. The real test will come though when I actually have to lock them IN with each other for a few days, how they get along when they can't run away. I don't forsee problems, knock on wood.

Aaron