New to chuckies but worried head chicken is too bossy

[julia305]

Good afternoon from London everybody

OK I'm new to chicken keeping and my flock consists of 2 bantams, one ISA and one suffolk white. She (Stella) is the head chicken followed by Horatio who is the ISA and my two tiny babies (Pekin bantams) are unfortunately at the bottom of the pecking order. They are all around 18 weeks old. Stella has been laying for a couple of weeks and has turned into THE most bossy, bad tempered chicken you could ever imagine. She chases the babies away every time they come near her, they take absoltuely ages to go into the coop because (I think) they are worried they are going to get chased. She pecks them but I dont think she makes contact? Is this a normal behaviour for the pecking order? I do appreciate that there are going to be lower ranking chickens but I dont want the two little ones to live a life of misery. They arent injured or anything but every time she walks near them they get up and run off.

Horatio is the only one who can compete with her for food ie if I throw some grapes down Horatio and Stella will both go for the same grape but the bantams hang back from the crowd (I have 2 Aylesbury ducks as well) so obviously I make sure that i go to them and give them their treats by hand which doesnt always work because Stella comes over to see what i have and they then run off. Its a no win situation sometimes.

anyway is this general day to day behaviour for chickens? As I said, i do appreciate the pecking order but I was wondering is Stella's behaviour normal for a head chicken? Should I segregate her for a couple of days? Horatio is No. 2 chicken and much calmer she has just started laying and doesnt kick up the same racket as Stella. I can be sitting in the garden with them and Stella will come up and peck at me from behind, she swears and complains constantly lol. I love her to pieces though but she is sooo bad tempered.

Thanks in advance

 

[SnowPeeOstrichU]

Hi there and

What's the size difference between Stella and the pekin bantams? If it's a big difference, the issue might be that they can't really "compete" in the pecking order as equally..

Hope this helps!

 

[julia305]

Hiya and thank you for your quick reply. I did just type a response but i think i deleted it lol.

OK Stella is by far the biggest chicken. She is nearly double the size of the smallest bantam (Elvis - a feather foot black Pekin Bantam). Roy is slightly bigger but nowhere near the size of Stella. The thing is they are all peaceful together until Stella comes along, is around. Is this really normal behaviour then or should I separate the bantams for the sake of their own happiness? I love them all so much but I dont like to see the little ones all nervous and squawking when then go in and running around to get away from Stella it's awful.

I just edited the post to add this pic - Stella is the white chicken and you will be able to see the two small bantams that gives you an idea of the size. My ducks are the subject of the picture they are also having a shout at me

Thanks

 

[SnowPeeOstrichU]

I might consider separating them because of size difference similarly to how my 2.5 month olds don't get to play with the adult chickens yet as I fear them getting beaten up by the pecking order.

Hope this helps!

 

[julia305]

Aww poor babies. What about segregating Stella for a while so she loses her place at the top? Horatio the ISA is way calmer. I have such a small garden I don't think I would have room for two coops with sufficient space for them all to potter around when they aren't free ranging.

 

[julia305]

I forgot to add - they all used to get on perfectly as I've had them all from a week old. I don't know what's gone wrong. I think it's since Stella started laying

 

[donrae]

This is all perfectly normal chicken behavior. The benefit of being the top ranked animal is you get first choice of the food and water, and everyone else moves out of your way when you come close to them. She's not hurting any of the others. The littler birds are appropriately cautious around her, that's how it should be. In my experience the Omega animals are usually pretty content with their status, it doesn't bother them near as much as it does the humans watching. They understand someone's got to be the boss, and someone's got to be last. I'd just leave things be. She'll also likely settle down after she's been laying a while, those hormones make us ladies do weird things sometimes

 

[julia305]

Aww ok. That's reassuring. Yes they aren't hurt thank goodness otherwise I would have already separated them. She just bops them one as they go past her. She used to be the sweetest chicken Lool. Now she shouts and swears and demands Gonna change her name to diva

 

[SnowPeeOstrichU]

haha

 

[donrae]

You know, I recall some times of the month I wanted to bob pretty much anyone who walked past me

. My family was probably doing a lot of hiding from me, too!