Pecking order or excessive agression?

[artbykarenehaley]

Hello, I have a situation with my flock.
Recently we added four younger birds to our flock. We have four older birds from April 2019.

We were using the method of see but not touch, and they had been around eachother this way for about four or five weeks.

Three of our older hens have accepted the younger chickens quite well. They are all laying together in the sun as I write.

However the hen on the bottom of the established pecking order chases the younger birds relentlessly. She pecks them hard and repeatedly, usually by cornering one of them.

To keep the peace she is in a separate enclosure with visual of her flock mates. Basically she's in the grow up pen and the chicks are now with the rest of the flock.

As of now, all is peaceful. She doesn't seem perturbed by the arrangements, and is pecking and scratching in the bedding of the grow up pen without a care. Will I ever be able to let Chica be with the flock again?

The younger birds will eventually be as big as her or larger. They are varying mixes of standard WFBS, mosaic, standard Cochin, and Easter egger. Right now they are a little bigger than the size of bantams, and Chica is a hatchery Buff Orp. My current plan is to reintroduce her when they are bigger.

I am thinking I will put one of the flock mates her own age with her.

 

[Lady of McCamley]

Sounds like a good plan. Keep Chica in the grow out pen with a buddy, if need be, until the chicks are full size.

I have had very aggressive Buff Orps too, and I've never seen them settle down until equality is more established in the flock...that will be when the pullets are full size.

And it is typical of the bottom hen fighting hardest when new arrivals come to NOT be at the bottom of the pecking order as it is HER spot that is jeopardized.

I expect once the pullets are full size, Chica hopefully will do some normal pecking and then things will settle. If not, then you may consider doing what I did with my Buff Orps...re-homing them to people who understood they need to be "top chickens" in their own little flock. Factory hatched Buffs Orps are not the cuddly things people so lovingly remember. I got rid of ALL my hatchery Buff Orps because of aggression (laziness and lack of laying).

Good luck with Chica. If she is smart, she'll cool her heels and accept the younger birds when she has the next opportunity.

LofMc

 

[artbykarenehaley]

Thank you! Yes, she is the bottom hen in the original pecking order. She had a flock mates pass away this summer and it triggered a weird dynamic between Chica and Spooky, an EE. After the flockmate died, Spooky began to exhibit almost rooster like behaviours toward Chica, such as cornering her and mounting her against her will. Standing near her while she was cornered and making a weird imitation of a crow. Chasing her to bite her. I let them all range the whole yard during this time so they had more space to avoid eachother, and spooks and chica worked it out. But free ranging in February with these smaller chickens isn't an option. It's cold, so all they want to do is get onto my back porch. They're small enough to squeeze under or between the railings where chica can't reach them. (She trails them like a hound). Then they hang out all day and use our porch as a toilet.

For context, our porch is half enclosed with gates built into the railing. The big chickens don't fly up and over it because they have no reason to, unless on rare occasion a feeder might need refilled and we're late going out to check.

So the little chickens see it as a great playground where the grown ups can't boss em around haha

 

[BarredRockMom]

My Buff Orph (Mrs Butterworth) is at the top of the flock & sometimes she gets a bug on her nubbin & harasses the lowest girl on the rung. I can usually snap my fingers, call her out by name & get the bug off of her nubbin with a warning or two. Fortunately, she's not out of control or it would be more challenging to keep peace.

Perhaps in your case, you could try reprimanding her & breaking up the ruckus repeatedly. Catch her & carry her around until she settles down. Release her & do it again when she acts up. Snap your fingers & say "hey, (use her name) knock it off," to try & get her to associate her behavior with 'uh oh, I'm going to get scooped up if I don't stop...'

Maybe this is too much trouble, but I have my girls pretty trained when it comes to snapping my fingers. I don't want them to fear me, just know that Flock Mom says NO, so knock it off! Good behavior is rewarded with treats.

The rest is happy training....a plastic bottle rattled with crickets, sunflower seeds in a paper towel, the rustle of the lettuce wrapper when foraging isn't possible, rounding them up to go home. They still peck at each other & that's normal. But that extra swipe? Not in front of me, generally. And I've had enough stink eyes rolled in my direction to know that their compliance is against their will at times, so I distract & reinforce with special praise or an extra treat. (Those rolling stink eyes are pretty hilarious, I have to say, even if it's my imagination.)