Pecking Before Bed?

[Tendonuts]

Hi All,

We're in Edmonton, Alberta, and we have three Rhode Island Reds - Bunty, Babs, Edwina - all three are 1 year-old. Their bedtime usually goes like this: Edwina and Babs goes into the coop first, while Bunty is still out in the run scratching and digging away. She'll go in later when the other two have more or less settled down and she'll take whichever spot is left over and there's no issues. Lately I've noticed that when she comes into the coop, the other two are still deciding where to sleep, and for seemingly no reason at all Babs would peck at Bunty. So Bunty will make a dash for one of the sleeping spots, from which she is promptly chased out by either Babs or Edwina. Bunty will go to another spot and again she'll get pecked at and chased out. This goes on for about 5-10 minutes and then they settle down. There were times when Bunty is almost chased out of the coop until the other two have settled down. Has anybody experienced this before? What can I do to stop them pecking at Bunty? Thanks everybody!

 

[RojoMarz]

Sounds like pretty normal bedtime behavior. Is Bunty actually getting hurt?

 

[aart]

Has anybody experienced this before? What can I do to stop them pecking at Bunty?

Yep. I call it the RoostTimeRumble. Happens most every night.
As long as they have plenty of roost length, let them work it out.

 

[50-45-1]

Sounds like normal bedtime pecking order squables.
In my coop of over a dozen birds, there is always a commotion of squalking, flapping and rearrangement . Then everybody finds there place and settles in for the night

 

[Tendonuts]

Sounds like pretty normal bedtime behavior. Is Bunty actually getting hurt?

Hi there, thanks for the response. No, not yet anyways. It's only started happening in the last couple of weeks, so she doesn't have any injuries that I can see.