Kung Fu Chickens??

[bloom_ss]

Earlier today as I was free ranging my small flock of six backyard chickens (all EEs), I watched as one chicken (lower on the pecking order, but not the lowest) tried to take out one of her flock mates with what looked like the chicken version of the flying side kick. Seriously. Now, my chickens don't get in to squabbles very often, but every once in a while one of them will get a wild hair (or should I say feather?) and completely blindside one of the other chickens. And they are REALLY getting good at not letting the victim know they are coming. My girls are right around 14 weeks now and I don't have any roosters, but I do have a dominate pullet who guards the flock really well and is always on the lookout for danger. There is one pullet in the group that especially likes to blindside the dominate one...I think she wants to take over as flock leader. She jumps on the dominate ones back repeatedly before the dominate one can get away, but she doesn't get away with it for long because the dominate one ALWAYS gets her back good. How long does this pecking order thing take to work itself out?? None of them are getting constantly picked on, but I'm afraid someone is going to lose an eye soon with these unprovoked surprise attacks...lol

 

[TigerLilly]

Hopefully it will work itself out sooner rather than later...but have you tried isolating the blind-siding, kung fu chicken? Put her somewhere else away from the rest of the flock for a couple of days.
If she's not hurting anyone, I dont know that I'd worry about it, though.
If you are really worried about it though, get rid of her--whether it's in the stew pot, sell or give away.

 

[SpunkyChicken]

If you take the hen out of the flock for a few days, won't that disrupt the pecking order even more once you put her back in?

 

[bloom_ss]

Thanks for the replies! None of the chickens are getting hurt at the moment, but they sure like to kick box with each other a lot lately...lol Those sharp little claws going for the eyes just makes me nervous.

I just figured that by 14 weeks (they are all from the same hatch) they would have the pecking order straightened out and everything would be running smoothly. Usually things are fine, but when I let them out to free range they just start going at it with each other for some reason.

 

[Two Creeks Farm]

You mean Chicken-itzu?

 

[bloom_ss]

Quote:
Exactly! LOL That's precisely what I saw them doing, except mine are all pullets...and the one that got jumped never even saw it coming. LOL

 

[oldrooster]

Quote:
Looks like what this song is about