Pecking order?

[mrsbos]

Have any of you with young chicks noticed an obvious pecking order yet? I have three 4 wk old Ameraucanas that I have observed for many many hours since they've been born. It doesn't look like any type of hierarchy has been established yet. I'm not complaining....they all get along great and seem to enjoy each other's company. I just wonder if eventually, one is going to stand out as "top chicken" at some point.

 

[nifty50chick]

I have 37 two week olds.
I haven't noticed any pecking order yet, but i laughed my self silly this morning when a few of the "boys" started showing "rooish" behavior.
Going chest to chest, wings extended (tiny little wings) and necks stretched. didn't peck at each other, just showing off their "stuff" lol

 

[math ace]

You may not notice the hierachy unless you add new chickens to your flock. When the hierachy is working, everybody knows their place and things work smoothly. You only notice it when somebody challenges somebody else and a monkey wrench is thrown into the set-up.

If they are roosting - - - and you have multi-level roosts - - - the higher up on the roost the higher up on the pecking order.

 

[Luckytaz]

Keep watching, it happens a little at a time.

 

[gritsar]

Pecking order starts from day one in the brooder together. It should be running smoothly by the time the chicks are around 6 weeks old and as math ace has already stated, you might not notice it if it's running smoothly.
Hens have their own pecking order, which the roos are part of. In addition to that main flock order, roosters have a seperate pecking order amongst themselves. So long as everyone knows their place and stays in it, things go well.

 

[Sweetpeaswan]

Mathace hit the nail on the head

 

[sneakers]

I had ten wyondott chicks in with three yokohamas. I had to seperate them because the wyondotts are more agressive and grow twice as fast. They are five weeks old. You have three together of the same breed. No competition really. One will lead the flock eventually!

 

[gryeyes]

I have two brooders working right now, one in the Nursery/Bathroom with six chicks, 3 are 6 days old and the other three are 4 days old. The "older" chicks are bantam cochins and about a third the size of the younger, Orpingtons. (Not sure if the Orps are blacks or blues yet.) The other brooder has 7 chicks, 5 olive eggers about 6 weeks old and a BJG and LB about 5 weeks old - this brooder is on my covered back porch.

The Nursery brooder chick dynamics are hysterically cute to watch. Those itty-bitty bantam cochins have rank over the much larger orps.

The Porch Brooder chick dynamics are much more straight forward: older, olive egger cockerel with the largest comb pulls rank on ALL the other chicks. The LB appears to be higher in the pecking order than the BJG, although both are pullets and the BJG is bigger than the LB.

Interesting.

 

[gritsar]

I have a 14 week old silkie that is THE BOSS of 9 cornish X chickens of the same age. Talk about funny! When the silkie wants to get somewhere but can't because the CXs are blocking the way, she/he simply jumps on the back of the closest CX and walks over them.

 

[33yardbirds]

I've been watching mine way too much. I thought one rooster was the boss but it seems now the whole darn flock of 26 are just a bunch of pals hanging out together. There isn"t even a top hen out of 23 of them. I guess no one wants to step up to the position.