mean pullet

[ravenseye57]

I have a little pullet that thinks it's great fun to run around pecking the butts of all of the other hens. She disrupts the whole flock and is pulling the feathers out of everyone's vent areas. I tried isolating her for a few days to try to get her to forget about her habit, but it didn't seem to help (I did find out that she's a good layer). Any suggestions?

 

[steelersfan43]

What about trying one of those eye mask things (can't for the life of me think of the name of them at the moment) that they put on chickens to keep them from pecking.

 

[lolita117]

They are called blinders, right?

 

[PtldChick]

pinless peepers

I'd separate her for at least a week so that pecking order can reestablish. A few days probably wasn't long enough for them to forget each other.

 

[ravenseye57]

Last night she had everyone so upset that they wer all trying to roost in the nests and on the one high perch. I'm going to raise the rest of the perches so she can't reach the roosting hens from the ground. But she does it even during the day and despite being punished for it by the dominant hens. I found chicken blinders online so maybe I'll try them.
It's getting a bit crazy though. Today I had two hens that miss meanie drew blood from, a hen with a prolapsed vent, and meanie herself (her real name is buttercup, a good name for her since it's a pretty little flower that's poisonous!) all on the back porch. I'm going to take four of the most picked on girls out to our farm property and put them with the moulting hens I have out there under low light. Maybe it's partly cabin fever and a bit of overcrowding. I also have a mixed age flock, which I've read is inadvisable. I don't have the facilities to house different aged hens seperately though.

 

[ravenseye57]

Looks like I need to order some of those chicken blinders. Buttercup's sister Amber was doing the same thing yesterday, so I brought her in and put her in the crate with BC overnight and in the morning her vent had been pecked bloody. My hands are also black and blue from reaching in to the cage without gloves to get the food and water dishes in or out. Gloves from now on! She even pecks me (hard!) through the holes and bars when I'm moving the crate she's in. That's one mean little chicken!

 

[mstricer]

I have a young pullet also with others that are the same age and a few a couple weeks young. She pile drives everyone in the head every chance she gets. If she was really harming others, I would feed her to the dogs. I think that if I let her continue she would probably do it when she gets older.

 

[ChicksRoseburg]

I wanted help with the two Americana Chicks we picked up at feed store.
We have two Americana Chicks we picked up at feed store, they were labels pullets, I put them in with my Nankin Bantam who are the same age, well that lasted a week. all the chicks a 4 weeks old the two Americana Chicks where pecking at the eyes of my Bantam Chicks. I separated them I watch the Americana Chicks stretch out real tall and attack each other, they are real flighty when you try to handle them. They run and fight each other in the brooder. Today I let all four out and one of the Americana Chicks grabbed the back of my Nankin Bantam neck and would not let go! I think they are rooster the way they act, and mean ones at that. Any thought on this, beside not getting chicks at feed store?

 

[ravenseye57]

Sounds like roostery behavior to me, but you can't be completely sure till they start crowing. That being said, when I've thought a chick was a rooster they almost always have turned out to be. I haven't kept bantams, but I didn't think you were supposed to keep them with standard sized chickens. My Aracuna/americaunas are pretty meek, but the rooster I got for free last summer is small but feisty.

 

[DelDels]

Looks like I need to order some of those chicken blinders. Buttercup's sister Amber was doing the same thing yesterday, so I brought her in and put her in the crate with BC overnight and in the morning her vent had been pecked bloody. My hands are also black and blue from reaching in to the cage without gloves to get the food and water dishes in or out. Gloves from now on! She even pecks me (hard!) through the holes and bars when I'm moving the crate she's in. That's one mean little chicken!

I would cull this chicken. Her abuse of your other chickens needs to stop. She is also undoubtedly cutting down on your egg count and will continue to do so. The eggs she lays will not make up for the loss of other hen's eggs that she is causing. She is not worth getting bruised over either. She will probably still be aggressive even with the peepers although she may stop plucking.