Newly laying pullet bully?

[ImNewToThis]

I have three pullets, a silver laced wyandotte (slw), a golden laced wyandotte (glw), and a black sex link (bsl). All three of these girls just started laying in the last week. They were hatched in February and were purchased from the store together and raised in the same brooder together since day one. I have never had an issue with any them being agressive with one another until three days ago when my glw laid her first egg. As soon as my glw came out of the nesting box, it was like a switch had flipped in her mind and she has started relentlessly going after my bsl. It started with the glw pecking the back of the bsl's head and in the last day has graduated to jumping at/on the bsl and kicking or pulling a few feathers. At first my bsl just submitted and laid down, but now she just runs away and squawks. My slw is the top of the pecking order and will run over to break up the fight about 30% of the time, but my bsl is constantly running away and hiding from the glw, or attempting to stay close to my slw for protection. Most of the time my bsl just ends up seperating herself away from the both of them, as my glw and slw are usually glued at the hip. They have access to a very large area at all times, so space is not an issue. We have added extra food and water stations so my bsl has a chance to eat and drink before getting chased off. Is this new bullying behavior caused by my glw just starting to lay with some sort of hormone surge? Is it something they just need to work out or will mellow out with time? It seems too accessive to just be normal pecking order squabbles and appears to be escalating. My bsl was the first of the girls to lay, followed by the slw, but neither are agressive at all.

 

[BDutch]

I don’t know what’s the cause. Maybe hormones and stress. Hormones can do strange things with humans and with chickens too. Maybe its (partly) food related. Your chickens need feed with lots of calcium and protein if the lay an egg each day.

Do the chickens get layer feed with grit and oyster shell on the side? Do you give a little fresh green veggies/fruit and fine cut grasses and herbs for extra vitamins?
Scattering a little grain in the run and giving a clump of soil with grass and some toys might help against boredom. Free ranging is even better.

 

[ImNewToThis]

I don’t know what’s the cause. Maybe hormones and stress. Hormones can do strange things with humans and with chickens too. Maybe its (partly) food related. Your chickens need feed with lots of calcium and protein if the lay an egg each day.

Do the chickens get layer feed with grit and oyster shell on the side? Do you give a little fresh green veggies/fruit and fine cut grasses and herbs for extra vitamins?
Scattering a little grain in the run and giving a clump of soil with grass and some toys might help against boredom. Free ranging is even better.

Thanks for your reply.

We switched them from grower to layer feed about a week before my first girl started laying and they have free choice bins of grit and oyster shell. They get to free range 1-2 hours a day and we have them in a moving pen/chicken tractor setup, so they always have fresh grass to forage when they aren't having full run of the backyard and a handful of scratch once a day in their run. They get cold watermelon most days since it's summer time and hot out, and any veggie ends/kitchen scraps we have. But they get supplemental protein every couple days when my cats don't finish their wet food (it's never much but they absolutely go nuts for it.) I don't think it's boredom or nutrition related, but I have thought it could possibly be partly heat stress. We have a tray that we put out with cold water in it for them to stand in and keep cool, frozen water bottles for them to lay next to, and we put ice in their drinking water. Unfortunately it's been between 93-101°F the last week, and will continue to be for the next couple weeks at the very least.

 

[rosemarythyme]

Hormones are probably a large part of it. Just make sure your run is cluttered up https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/a-cluttered-run.1323792/page-6#post-25037140 to give the lower ranked bird some relief. The extra feeder(s) should all be spread out and placed behind some clutter to break line of sight around the space.

 

[ImNewToThis]

Hormones are probably a large part of it. Just make sure your run is cluttered up https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/a-cluttered-run.1323792/page-6#post-25037140 to give the lower ranked bird some relief. The extra feeder(s) should all be spread out and placed behind some clutter to break line of sight around the space.

That's a great suggestion, thank you. I've added some clutter and it seems my bsl is able to get away from my glw a little more often than before. It's not perfect, but I hope after the hormones level out they can go back to being somewhat civil to one another. The goal would be friends once again, but I'm not sure if that will happen.

 

[ImNewToThis]

I writing again hoping to bump up this post up and get some more advice. I watched some youtube videos and read other posts on chicken bullying and quite a few suggested to separate the bully from the flock for a few days but still within the run/coop area, so they can see the flock but cannot roost with them at night or act out their bullying. I ended up putting my glw in a large dog crate within the run area for 2.5 days and there was a massive improvement when we let her out. She did not chase my bsl at all, though my bsl was terrified of her and would run whenever she got close. By that afternoon my bsl, glw, and slw were all laying together in a pile in some fresh grass and seemed to be mostly fine with one another, though my bsl still kept a healthy distance or my slw between the two of them. The next day however, by glw was right back to chasing, pecking, pinning, and pulling the feathers of my bsl. We are starting again with her little bully jail setup, but I'm unsure if she just needs more time or if there is something else we should be doing entirely.

 

[BDutch]

I writing again hoping to bump up this post up and get some more advice. I watched some youtube videos and read other posts on chicken bullying and quite a few suggested to separate the bully from the flock for a few days but still within the run/coop area, so they can see the flock but cannot roost with them at night or act out their bullying. I ended up putting my glw in a large dog crate within the run area for 2.5 days and there was a massive improvement when we let her out. She did not chase my bsl at all, though my bsl was terrified of her and would run whenever she got close. By that afternoon my bsl, glw, and slw were all laying together in a pile in some fresh grass and seemed to be mostly fine with one another, though my bsl still kept a healthy distance or my slw between the two of them. The next day however, by glw was right back to chasing, pecking, pinning, and pulling the feathers of my bsl. We are starting again with her little bully jail setup, but I'm unsure if she just needs more time or if there is something else we should be doing entirely.

My thoughts with little experience on this subject: My knowledge is just from reading and the experience that some chicken characters are impossible to change. Some chickens just have the wrong genes or were mentally damaged in their upbringing/ chick-hood.

You did a great job to separate the bully. But it in didn’t work out for the longer time. You could try once more for a longer period, but don’t expect too much of it.

What next?
To answer this better its important to know where you live. Best put it in your profile. And also to know more about how much room the chickens have at night , when they have access to the run and how big that is.

General answers:
Maybe she would do better in another flock without softies (game flock)? You could try to rehome her and be honoust why she didn’t fit in your flock.
Or.
If possible, let the chickens free range from sunrise til sunset. I know people who do with an auto pop door. That way the chickens who get bullied can get away from her and the bully might change her behaviour bc she is way less stressed. Free ranging is always a risk bc of predators, but with just an occasional fox or goshawk it’s doable imo. A rooster might help if you are really going to let them free range. Only free ranging in the afternoon might be enough too to lower the risk.
Or.
Last option. Cull the nasty bully. Sell her as meat if you can’t do it yourself or let a vet euthanise her for you for a lot of money.

If you like other opinions you can start a new thread with a good title or @ a few people with more experience (educators).