May have to thin my flock-some strange acting hens

[tlm724]

I have 15 RIR hens, No Roo's. Hens are 1 year old. 3 of my hens are sooo mean to the other girls. They gang up on the hen of the day and pick, ride and overall bully the other hens to the point that they have no back or rear end feathers left and are raw and close to bleeding. This has been going on for months and I have had it. I just don't know what to do , should I get rid of the three mean hens? Any help or opinions would be appreciated.

 

[HenPen]

YUP!! I would send them to Freezer camp!!!

 

[paddock36]

Someone told me before to try separating the mean one in a different pen for a few days and it may take her down a peg in dominance. It's worth a try if you want to keep them. If not the stew pot never fails.

 

[AHappychick]

do the 3 get along? if so sell them to someone who is just starting and only wants 3 layers.

this way everybody wins, or if the get sold to someone with others they will probably be on the bottom of the pecking order in the new home once they are out of quarentine (if the buyer does that).

 

[Brindlebtch]

If you want to keep them try the clip on peepers from eggcartons.com. They totally solved my flock's nastiness problems. Leave them on for a month or so and they will probably have a change in attitude.

 

[PoultryPedia]

I'd recommend getting a couple chicken saddles to protect the most battered hens. BYCer Moodene makes good ones for only $3 each, including shipping.

 

[PoultryPedia]

Here's also info I posted on another thread that may be helpful.

Ideas: Put some obstacles in the coop she can hide behind, jump onto and run around while evading attacks from the other chickens. ***Always be sure no blocked-off or dead-end areas are created where chickens could get cornered.*** Sacks of feed, buckets, additional perches, trash cans, etc. can be useful. Window frames (with either glass or wire in the middle) leaned against things can also be excellent for a flee-er to run behind and be protected yet be able to keep track of aggressor's travels. Lower-ranking chickens also appreciate shadowy, cluttered areas where they can hang out and not be noticed as much.
There's also a hobbling technique that gets roosters to quit bullying--Don't know if it would work well on hens, but here it is:
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If the "mean-ness" is a rooster problem toward roosters, you can use tape or something to hobble his lower legs together with just enough length that he can walk but not jump up & spur or run really fast. When you put him down, the other chickens sense he is handicapped and generally dive at him (**You MUST stay there to supervise and make sure things don't get TOO rough on him**). Less than a minute of this may get a rooster humbled enough that he never bullies again.
I'm not sure how this would work with correcting aggression toward hens. I imagine you'd be likely to need more than 1 min of hobbling because they'd probably not be as driven to attack him??? I would DEFINITELY separate the other roo while putting the hobbled roo with the hens--otherwise the other roo would take the opportunity to attack him & the hens wouldn't even be part of the interaction.
It can take rooster that was hobbled 2-3 weeks to feel confident enough to hang out comfortably with the others again.
BE CAREFUL WITH THIS TECHNIQUE! Even a little too much time at other chickens' mercy can be very detrimental to thrashee's self-confidence. I think it would be better to do too short of a hobbling session, if in doubt, and then do a second session if needed a couple weeks later.

 

[geepster]

I have some hens that are egg eaters and some 3 month old chicks that pick the others really bad so I took sidesnips and trimmed the ends of their beaks off. Not real far back just enough to take off the pointed tips of their beaks. I also raise gamefowl and I had a hen picking the scales off the roosters legs to where he couldn't hardly walk and that is what I done to her. After about two weeks she started doing it again after her beak wasn't sore anymore, then I did put a poly peeper on her and it stopped.