- Aug 16, 2013
- 1,096
- 1,361
- 256
I have kept a lot of livestock, chickens included for long enough that I should know better by now. It seems that the consensus is that you should get rid of a bully, eat it ir whatever. Here is my experience. You get rid of the bully and another one takes her place. Usually it is number one in command, a lot of times it is number two, but either way, you get rid of that one and another one takes it's place. Herd/flock dynamics 101. You might end up with a kinder gentler number one, but have just a good of a chance to find out that number two, or number three had the potential to be far worse but were being held in check by the former number one. Number two can be just as bad, sometimes a little angst from being second, yet they will never take that up with number one, just take it out on underlings. Surely you have known that assistant manager?
Now the isolation thing has merit, if they can still see her, number two isn't going to get too carried away, so it is going to keep things the same but keep the bully from bullying. Same for the one that gets picked on, you get rid of that one, and attention shifts to the new bottom rung of the social ladder. If only it was so simple to achieve social harmony by just removing a herd member here and there, why, if that were the case, there would be no war or famine.
Feather picking CAN be a different matter entirely, a slight nutritional deficiency brought on by molt, usually a privilege enjoyed by high ranking members of chicken society, the ability to eat someone else's blood filled feathers in order to better grow one's own. Can turn into an obsession that lasts beyond molt, at which point there is little cure except the frying pan. Plenty of room with lots of nooks and crannies to lay low in and having multiple feeders solves a lot of problems before they start.
Now the isolation thing has merit, if they can still see her, number two isn't going to get too carried away, so it is going to keep things the same but keep the bully from bullying. Same for the one that gets picked on, you get rid of that one, and attention shifts to the new bottom rung of the social ladder. If only it was so simple to achieve social harmony by just removing a herd member here and there, why, if that were the case, there would be no war or famine.
Feather picking CAN be a different matter entirely, a slight nutritional deficiency brought on by molt, usually a privilege enjoyed by high ranking members of chicken society, the ability to eat someone else's blood filled feathers in order to better grow one's own. Can turn into an obsession that lasts beyond molt, at which point there is little cure except the frying pan. Plenty of room with lots of nooks and crannies to lay low in and having multiple feeders solves a lot of problems before they start.
