one of my rodies attacked me!

[lovmyrodies]

occasionally i try to pet/handle one of the hens. today i picked a hen up and loosely held her close to me on the ground to pet her. she was fairly docile. then the tallest hen of my 6 aggressively ran over and pecked my hand pretty bad and tried to attack a second time. was this behavior in response to her protecting the other hen i held? or what? is there anything i can do about it. thanks.

 

[gritsar]

I would say that yes, it was a response to you holding the other hen. If your flock doesn't have a roo, a dominant hen will usually take the place of a roo to protect other flock members.
I would respond the same way I would if it was a roo. Chase back, arms flapping. Don't be the first to walk away. Make her be the one to back down and walk away.
She needs to learn that you are the ultimate one in charge of the flock and anything you do is okay.

Plus, are you sure miss dominance is a hen?

 

[Happy Chooks]

Quote:
I was thinking the same.

 

[crazyhen]

If I pick up a hen and she squaks . The others come running and would peck if she continued. If I stand up however, they go back to what they were doing. They are sort of protective. Gloria jean

 

[lovmyrodies]

I'm pretty sure she's not a roo;she looks the the rest of them. she's always been stand offish even when she was a chick. right after she bit me, i flung my arm at her and she ran away. so, i guess that was ok to do. hopefully she won't do it again but i don't trust her. Thanks for the help