my bantam hen has become aggressive with me

[kiminal]

Hi, this is my first post. One of my bantam hens has suddenly become very aggressive with me - biting my hand and trying to bite my face. She's almost a year old and I raised her and her sister and brother from eggs so they are very used to me and I have not done anything out of the ordinary that I can think of to have caused this. She has always been the one that was picked on a bit by her sister, and I protected her from that. It's just a bit unsettling. She is the only one to lay blue eggs and very precious to me.

 

[justusnak]

Wow, Im not sure. Do you hold her regularly?? Maybe with gloves for a few times.? Bantums can be a little nippy, in my experience. Hope she gets over her aggresion. Try hand feeding her, and holding her.

 

[BeckyLa]

Welcome to BYC!!!

Perhaps your girl is going broody. She is the right age. Their body goes through hormonal changes when they go broody and they can get very grumpy. Does she spend a lot of time on the nest? Does she fluff up when you come around? Is her comb getting to be a lighter color, maybe even pink? These are all signs of a broody.

 

[kiminal]

thanks for your suggestions. I thought about broodiness as her sister sat on two eggs so we've got two one month old chooks running around, so I let her sit on her egg when she lays for as long as she likes. After a couple of hours she gets off and squawks.

They've all been pretty much hand fed and very handled (they live on our windowsill at night with their bums facing out). My rooster is incredibly friendly and a real mummy's boy who gets cuddled all the time and falls asleep in your arms...