Mean Hen

[Chickenfeathers000]

Help my hen is really mean to other hens in my coop (but nice to humans). What should I do with her? Can I make her nice? (I’ve tried keeping her away from the flock for ten days and did not work).

 

[jus10inla]

Either one of these is my preferred way to deal with a mean hen. Especially after putting her in time out

 

[jus10inla]

the first pic is preferred if u want them to look like this.. the second pic is only if u want it to feed the predators

 

[rosemarythyme]

Define "mean" - what is she doing that's an issue?

How old is she? How big is the flock? Has she always been with the flock? What does your set up look like?

 

[Acre4Me]

Yes, some hens are mean. If you are unable to moderate her behavior, solve for peace in the flock …always.

Sell (we use a livestock auction) or give away, or dispatch in a humane way.

To try to fix the issue, maybe more space in their run or visual disruptions, so she cannot see everywhere (old picnic table, wagon, etc). And don’t forget roosts in the run.

But, some hens are too aggressive -or even too passive for a flock, and should be removed if things don’t improve.

 

[FC16]

As mentioned above, If they’re truly a ‘mean hen’ (i.e. persistent unprovoked pecking and attacking, drawing blood and hurting other members of the flock) then they definitely need to be removed. Sometimes you can isolate them for a given amount of time and then re-introduce, this can work, but sometimes it’s just the way that individual hen is and there’s no way of fixing that. I’ve just had to get rid of 3 problem hens as I’m introducing new chickens to my flock, they’re very aggressive and have never taken well to new additions. However, a mean hen can often be confused with standard chicken behaviour, chickens are territorial and do establish a pecking order, if you have had this hen with the other chickens for a long time and the behaviour is persistent then I’d say she probably is just a mean hen and she just does need to removed.