VlkStinu
Songster
Hi there, I have a flock of 5 hens that have been together for a year and a couple of months. Their pecking order is pretty clear and has been set since they got together. But today, I've noticed quite an interesting behavior from my favorite hen. Just for a bit of background - she's very strong, healthy, very adaptive, very agile. You throw some goodies for the flock and she usually flickers around like an atom, eating most of the stuff. She is always everywhere first. 
Now she is almost at the bottom of the pecking order, with only one hen below her. The rest of the three dominant hens always keep pecking her, chasing her away from the feed, and just bullying her quite often (and then she goes to bully the least dominant one). But today, I was unfreezing their water, they were all there drinking and out of nowhere, this favorite hen started pecking pretty dominantly the one that was always one post above her. And she wasn't objecting, actually, she was backing down. Does that mean that the pecking order changed or was that just some unusual moment where they both forgot their place?
Now she is almost at the bottom of the pecking order, with only one hen below her. The rest of the three dominant hens always keep pecking her, chasing her away from the feed, and just bullying her quite often (and then she goes to bully the least dominant one). But today, I was unfreezing their water, they were all there drinking and out of nowhere, this favorite hen started pecking pretty dominantly the one that was always one post above her. And she wasn't objecting, actually, she was backing down. Does that mean that the pecking order changed or was that just some unusual moment where they both forgot their place?
