Please help, chicken is being aggressive to other chickens!!

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Averyloveschickens

Averyloveschickens

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May 12, 2021
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Hi everyone, i have a chicken, i still dont knoe the gender but it was supposed to be a pullet. She is extremely sweet to me. She was raised by herself because her flockmate died as a chick. I got 3 more chickens and i used the playpen method for about a month to introduce them with supervised sessions together. But i just got them together in the coop 3 days ago and she is pulling out their feathers and attacking them! Is this the pecking order or is it something else? Please help, I'm scared of the violent chicken behavior in my flock and would like to return it to peace. Thank you in advance,
-Avery
 
It's challenging to me to make suggestions if I don't have an understanding of what is going on and what you have to work with. How old are all four of these chickens? How big, in feet or meters, is your coop? Your run? I don't know where you are in the world, your rough location might help from a weather perspective if some are really young. What did that playpen method look like? What did you do and what with? What does that "attacking them" look like? Is the attacker trying to drill a hole into the brain by pecking or is it more chasing and running away? If the three stay away from the one are they left alone?

I could make some assumptions but I could easily be wrong. The photos that could be helpful are ones that show what your facilities look like, that show what you have to work with.
 
Ok thank you all for responding. They are still fairly small and the coop is large compared to them, so size shouldnt be an issue but i will send pictures anyway. The little ones are almost 10 weeks and are hens, the bird that's being the bully is almost 14 weeks and i still dont know the gender, people are saying cockerel because she looks like one, but she acts so much like a pullet and doesnt crow or act rooster-y. She is an EE and the 3 others are a Delaware, New Hampshire red, and Barred rock. They were all raised together.
To answer your other question, the playpen method was the EE's, (Millie) pen attached to the pen that they were in, so they could see and hear each other through hardware cloth but not touch.
And to answer the other question, the "attacking" looks like pecking (pretty much anywhere) and pulling feathers, on one hen particularly.
The answer to i believe your last question, yes they do get left alone if they arent near her, but if they're doing something She's interested (like eating a treat for instance) she will barge in and take over, and they all run because they know she'll peck them.
I really dont know what is happening but i just integrated them together into the coop, so i would assume it would be that they just have to get used to each other and establish the pecking order, but i guess my question would be... Is the pecking order this violent?
 
If you post photos of the 14 week old we may be able to tell you the sex. One close-up of the head showing the comb and wattles whether it has wattles or not. Looking for size and color. A second photo in profile showing legs, posture, and conformation. At 14 weeks I'll ask for a third photo, sort of a closeup showing saddle and hackle feathers. A boy's saddle or hackle feathers can be sharp, a girl's more rounded. Not all of them have that at 14 weeks but many do and it is pretty definitive.

If it's a boy then puberty could be part of it, but it doesn't sound like it to me. It may be that puberty hasn't hit but it may be that it is an older girl. Or if it is a boy he doesn't see the others as girls yet. I get confused thinking about it.

You are trying to integrate a single chicken. That can be a little harder. They are flock animals and don't like to be alone. Often when an immature chicken invades the personal space of a more mature chicken it gets pecked. It's bad chicken etiquette for an inferior to invade a superior's personal space. It usually doesn't take long for the younger to learn to run away and avoid the older. When the single chicken is the older sometimes it wants to be with the others but the pecking instinct takes over when it invades their space. This creates an obvious conflict.

the "attacking" looks like pecking (pretty much anywhere) and pulling feathers, on one hen particularly.

This doesn't sound bad. If the pecking was concentrated on the head it would mean it was trying to kill the other. But this just sounds more like intimidation. "Stay out of my personal space" even if the aggressor is the one doing the invading. Sometimes they will kind of single one out. It might be a particularly weak chicken they can easily bully or it may be a strong one that they want to keep down so they don't lose their spot in the pecking order.

So what does all of this mean? My definition of a successful integration is that no on gets hurt. All that one big happy flock hanging out together can and will come later. If they avoid the older during the day and at night on the roosts life is good as long as no one is hurt. Typically my pullets hit that point where they merge with the adults about the time the pullets start laying. You are in a different situation with everything going on: a single chicken, not sure on sex, and that awkward adolescent (maybe) age. You did not mention that any were getting hurt, just that they run away. I think you are in a pretty good place with them.
 
Ridgerunner said:
If you post photos of the 14 week old we may be able to tell you the sex. One close-up of the head showing the comb and wattles whether it has wattles or not. Looking for size and color. A second photo in profile showing legs, posture, and conformation. At 14 weeks I'll ask for a third photo, sort of a closeup showing saddle and hackle feathers. A boy's saddle or hackle feathers can be sharp, a girl's more rounded. Not all of them have that at 14 weeks but many do and it is pretty definitive.

If it's a boy then puberty could be part of it, but it doesn't sound like it to me. It may be that puberty hasn't hit but it may be that it is an older girl. Or if it is a boy he doesn't see the others as girls yet. I get confused thinking about it.

You are trying to integrate a single chicken. That can be a little harder. They are flock animals and don't like to be alone. Often when an immature chicken invades the personal space of a more mature chicken it gets pecked. It's bad chicken etiquette for an inferior to invade a superior's personal space. It usually doesn't take long for the younger to learn to run away and avoid the older. When the single chicken is the older sometimes it wants to be with the others but the pecking instinct takes over when it invades their space. This creates an obvious conflict.

the "attacking" looks like pecking (pretty much anywhere) and pulling feathers, on one hen particularly.

This doesn't sound bad. If the pecking was concentrated on the head it would mean it was trying to kill the other. But this just sounds more like intimidation. "Stay out of my personal space" even if the aggressor is the one doing the invading. Sometimes they will kind of single one out. It might be a particularly weak chicken they can easily bully or it may be a strong one that they want to keep down so they don't lose their spot in the pecking order.

So what does all of this mean? My definition of a successful integration is that no on gets hurt. All that one big happy flock hanging out together can and will come later. If they avoid the older during the day and at night on the roosts life is good as long as no one is hurt. Typically my pullets hit that point where they merge with the adults about the time the pullets start laying. You are in a different situation with everything going on: a single chicken, not sure on sex, and that awkward adolescent (maybe) age. You did not mention that any were getting hurt, just that they run away. I think you are in a pretty good place with them.
Click to expand...
Thank you so much for all that information! That was so helpful! I will post pictures of Millie. People are sayings she's a rooster but I'm not so sure, we're going to wait and see if she lays an egg. Thank you so much for the help though, all of you.
 
20210514_171449.jpg

She doesnt have waddles, but she does have a pea comb. I will post a couple more. Some of the ones i have are kind of blurry though
 

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