Pecking Order Questions

[feathermaid]

Thanks for the info, but its 10:30 am and i already let them spend the night together, is it too late to separate them? Also take a look at the crappy diagram attached, they both need access to the coop, but there is only one door. Should i make another before splitting it down the middle? Should they even be in the same at night? The dotted lines are where im thinking to separate, you advice?

It's not too late at all, but this can get tricky depending on your ability to keep them separate... it's not possible for a lot of folks and their birds suffer because of it. Are they currently fighting or drawing blood? If not, that's really lucky, but you don't want to give a chance for it to happen, healing takes a long time.

Sleeping on the roost together at night is fine. Some people choose to start the integration that way. It's just when morning rolls around there still could be problems, especially if you're not around to intervene if necessary. I don't think cutting a new pop door is needed. If possible, every morning you could just go out and put up a temporary divider during the day so they can visit without touching or pecking each other. And don't forget putting food on each side of the divider line --most aggression comes from defending food. So the sooner they can get comfortable eating in each other's presence the better.

Do you free range? Letting them in a bigger space together can help too. How big is your run? Hopefully it's at least 60 square feet (10SF per bird). If it's absolutely not possible to keep them separate in the run, add lots of hiding spots to break line of sight for the chasing birds. Extra perches or a couple plywood sheets leaning against a wall will offer some protection.

 

[feathermaid]

Reminds me of kids in a playground, one minute their besties next they are at war! I'm new to poultry and only started in may 2018 but I've come to realise pecking order will never stop, they'll always be someone vying for top position and one thing I've noticed the most is that as soon as one of the underlings gets a bit confident they'll get picked on relentlessly. My BO is the youngest and gets it all the time. She's POL at the moment, goodness knows what it will be like when she starts laying, the others already fight over the nest box even though there is more than one they all want to use the sane one.
Recently she plucked up the courage to jump up on a ledge where all the others like to sit, and although the others weren't sitting on there at the time, they went mad, jumped up, pushed her off then chased her around the garden! Needless to say she hasn't been up there since. The only one who doesn't pick on her, nor ever has, is the head hen. I think it's because the head hen is my BO's mum. She isn't her natural mum though and they are different breeds but she hatched and raised her. The head hen is very independent and doesn't stand much from the others but will let her daughter get away with everything, my BO can (And does) steal her food/ treats and the alpha lets her get away with it but if any if the others tried to take anything which is hers she won't stand for it. I hope this doesn't change too, she was a great mum raising her and although she doesn't intervene when the others pick on her, when the BO runs to her for cover the others back off. They still sleep together too which I'm so thankful for because none of the others would ever let her sleep with them. So hopefully their mum/daughter bond will stay strong enough for this to never change.

Aw, what a sweet story... thanks for sharing.
Isn't pecking order just baffling sometimes?! It seems so unfair to us humans, but somehow it's a necessary part of flock survival. As long as nobody's drawing blood, it's just something we have to put up with.

It seems to be a pretty normal occurrence that hens always want the same nest box no matter how many others are available. Sometimes 2 or 3 will squeeze it together. I've heard a good solution is to remove one (or more) of the box dividers to make a long nesting area to fit more hens. And maybe put some fake eggs or golf balls in the other boxes you want them to use. Sometimes it works, but sometimes they're just stubborn.

 

[rebrascora]

My RIR hybrid hss as zero tolerance when it comes to the rest of my flocks - she chases all bar my head hen and my two drakes, and does so daily. She gets antsy with the others real easy but yet with us humans she is the softest most loving you could ever wish for. My biggest surprise though is how she is with her flock sister, they used to be so close, were always together, did everything together, even layer their first eggs together. Once she her sister was I'll, I had to let her in with her sister whom I had inside for a time while she recovered from her illness, this was because she got so upset at being separated from her flock sister but about a week or so into their laying she just turned and now she chases her flock sister daily. There sometimes are times when she will sit with her flock sister for short periods but doesn't happen very often. It is sad for me because they used to be so close but if you were to see how they are now you'd find it hard to believe they ever were.

Hi

Not sure if you are aware but it can be harmful to the health of chickens to be kept with drakes. If the drakes do not have (enough) female ducks to mate, they will often mate with the chicken hens and this can result in injury or infection being introduced into the oviduct which can sometimes lead to death. Adolescent drakes are particularly a problem in this respect. If you see your drakes trying to mate your hens, you need to take steps to pen them separately. Even if you don't see it happening, it may be occurring when you are not there and not worth taking the risk in my opinion. Of course, if you have lots of ducks for your drakes and/or they are older mature guys, then it may not be a problem.

 

[Skipper81]

They will be fine it takes a few days and a few scrap fights to settle the pecking order
Separating them at first helps but they still have to settle the order
I add new chickens all the time and even when I put chickens in the barn for a month for breeding when they come back they have to
Start over with the pecking order for some reason
Longest I’ve seen it go is 2 days

 

[Skipper81]

Never add just 1 bird
The more you add together really helps
1 bird is fighting everyone on her own it takes a toll mentally

 

[Anna Ranieri]

Aw, what a sweet story... thanks for sharing.
Isn't pecking order just baffling sometimes?! It seems so unfair to us humans, but somehow it's a necessary part of flock survival. As long as nobody's drawing blood, it's just something we have to put up with.

It seems to be a pretty normal occurrence that hens always want the same nest box no matter how many others are available. Sometimes 2 or 3 will squeeze it together. I've heard a good solution is to remove one (or more) of the box dividers to make a long nesting area to fit more hens. And maybe put some fake eggs or golf balls in the other boxes you want them to use. Sometimes it works, but sometimes they're just stubborn.

Good idea! I'm going to give that a try, will be great if it works.

 

[Chickassan]

It honestly might take a couple months before it settles down the laying will likely resume sooner than that, they can't "hold them in".
If you added a rooster one of two things would happen either he'd do his rooster buisness and distract the ladies a tiny bit or they'd beat him up.
He couldn't stop the catfighting if he wanted to, he isn't involved in the hen pecking order.
And as has been stated, does not help that some of your girls are redheads.

 

[Anna Ranieri]

Hi

Not sure if you are aware but it can be harmful to the health of chickens to be kept with drakes. If the drakes do not have (enough) female ducks to mate, they will often mate with the chicken hens and this can result in injury or infection being introduced into the oviduct which can sometimes lead to death. Adolescent drakes are particularly a problem in this respect. If you see your drakes trying to mate your hens, you need to take steps to pen them separately. Even if you don't see it happening, it may be occurring when you are not there and not worth taking the risk in my opinion. Of course, if you have lots of ducks for your drakes and/or they are older mature guys, then it may not be a problem.

Thank you for your concern, it's always nice when others take the time to care about a flock they don't even know
I do know about all the risks and potential dangers and we are constantly vigilant and monitor our flocks daily. I don't leave my birds out if no one is home and they have separate areas in the run plus they have separate sleeping quarters- the chickens have their own coop and the ducks have their own duck house - and they tend to keep to their own parts of the garden, although they do band together when they think there's a potential threat - usually when blackbirds try to land in the garden then they all band together to chase them off. There is sometimes bickering between a couple of my chickens and the duck hens usually when treats are given, and the chickens want to eat the ducks share to but nothing major. Never had any blood drawn by any of my birds, mostly just chasing.

 

[Anna Ranieri]

It honestly might take a couple months before it settles down the laying will likely resume sooner than that, they can't "hold them in".
If you added a rooster one of two things would happen either he'd do his rooster buisness and distract the ladies a tiny bit or they'd beat him up.
He couldn't stop the catfighting if he wanted to, he isn't involved in the hen pecking order.
And as has been stated, does not help that some of your girls are redheads.

I would love to have a rooster but unfortunately we are not allowed them. Only one of my girls is red, however I have a Cream Legbar hybrid who has some RIR in her, shes pretty low on the pecking order but picks on the lower than her birds and from what I've been reading I'm convinced it is the RIR part in her. Thankfully no one draws blood and no one really gets hurt, it's mostly chasing.

 

[Chickassan]

Oh, I was talking about the first poster who thought a rooster might help and has some VERY red birds lol!
I read your post as well, your ladies are well on their way, you've got no worries.

I would love to have a rooster but unfortunately we are not allowed them. Only one of my girls is red, however I have a Cream Legbar hybrid who has some RIR in her, shes pretty low on the pecking order but picks on the lower than her birds and from what I've been reading I'm convinced it is the RIR part in her. Thankfully no one draws blood and no one really gets hurt, it's mostly chasing.