Please help me with this aggressive hen- I cant take much more.

[CabritaChicks]

I have a just-over-one-year-old laying hen who has recently developed sudden, intense aggression toward me specifically. This isn’t light pecking — it’s full defensive posture (feathers fluffed, wings out, vocalizing, charging) and she has drawn blood multiple times. She (leghorn) lays consistently (about one egg a day), previously had a leg injury that has since healed, and sleeps separately in a tree. She only targets me — my husband is left alone. I just cant get my head around the crazy...
I gave her a second chance after canalizing one of my chicks and scratching/pecking the crap out of my head- but now my hands and feet have defensive wounds from this creature.

What makes this confusing is that she often bows/squats for me as well, which suggests a hormone-driven social or mating reflex rather than pure hostility? My working theory is that this may be a combination of:
• high estrogen from consistent laying
• posture-triggered aggression when I crouch or work at ground level
• possible territorial behavior around feeding (I give soaked pellets and some greens everyday) to keep them hydrated and cool.

I’m wondering if others have seen this mix of submissive/bowing behavior paired with sudden defensive aggression, especially when directed at only one person, and whether this tends to resolve as hormone cycles shift or if intervention is usually needed. I am not 'allowed' to even clean the coop, or give hand treats.

Please help. This is crazy and I dont know much or anything about behaviour as my chickens are buddies (with the exception of her).

 

[thecatumbrella]

Is this one that you hand raised from the first group?

I also had a hen turn on me. We were best buds the day before. Turns out that made me part of the pecking order. She had a hormone shift with laying and decided I needed to be booted from the flock. I booted her instead.

My guess is your hen is a classic bully, and you are a victim. Hope someone has better advice, but I would just rehome.

 

[FrostRanger]

I did have some luck getting a previous hen of mine to leave me alone by pecking her back firmly with my fingers and gently holding her down whenever she acted aggressive. However, Parsley was nowhere near as aggressive as your bird, in her case she was just biting and pecking me when I got near her. I would honestly ask is it even worth it to reform her? If you hatch chicks from her they are likely to inherit her bad attitude so you will have more cantankerous birds. I bothered with Parsley as her cantankerousness was fairly mild and at the time I had no plans of breeding, now that my plans have shifted towards breeding, I would put such a bird on the cull list. Again, while I don't think she's really worth keeping, if you do try, don't be afraid of her nor threatening (I go for the vibe of "*sigh* are you quite done? I don't have time for your nonsense") and if she doesn't shape up, ship her out

 

[CabritaChicks]

Is this one that you hand raised from the first group?

I also had a hen turn on me. We were best buds the day before. Turns out that made me part of the pecking order. She had a hormone shift with laying and decided I needed to be booted from the flock. I booted her instead.

My guess is your hen is a classic bully, and you are a victim. Hope someone has better advice, but I would just rehome.

Yes was from the first batch of eggs I hatched- yes. The eggs flew 3,500 miles, and I hatched them in my incubator.

We had dogs kill. We had humans steal. so at the end of the year: only two remained, Roo and Gyspy chick.

Captain is the rooster on the left, Ouzo in the middle (that was canabalized- but healed inteh the living room), and Roo on the right.

So yes, after that, hubby said 'get more' and we did- we got the 'booze cruise' (Stoli, Kraken, Captain and Ouzo.... the names fit our location).

And now we have the 'micro chicks'.... funny as it is- these 6 week old chicks- They are in a separate coop- but no more cannibalizing family members!!!!

Willow, Hazel, Luna, Nova, Scrappy and Smugde can definitely hold their own- but if a hen attacks me? what will they do to the chicks when we finally integrate (right now- they are see- no touch in a separate coop).

 

[CabritaChicks]

I did have some luck getting a previous hen of mine to leave me alone by pecking her back firmly with my fingers and gently holding her down whenever she acted aggressive. However, Parsley was nowhere near as aggressive as your bird, in her case she was just biting and pecking me when I got near her. I would honestly ask is it even worth it to reform her? If you hatch chicks from her they are likely to inherit her bad attitude so you will have more cantankerous birds. I bothered with Parsley as her cantankerousness was fairly mild and at the time I had no plans of breeding, now that my plans have shifted towards breeding, I would put such a bird on the cull list. Again, while I don't think she's really worth keeping, if you do try, don't be afraid of her nor threatening (I go for the vibe of "*sigh* are you quite done? I don't have time for your nonsense") and if she doesn't shape up, ship her out

That’s exactly the answer I was bracing myself for — even if I wasn’t quite ready to admit it. My husband’s take on the situation (and this is the gentle version) is: “Well… Roo gives us eggs and she never goes after me. She probably just misses you — she waits by the front door and likes watching TV on the sofa when she was young. Why on earth would she attack you?!”

…That is, until the days he’s actually seen it happen. I ddint run- but I used a feeding dish and a stick to defend myself saying 'stop, wtf, stop!' (really low tone) and still ended up with this, and a few more:

Then it shifts to, “Okay… maybe she’s just hungry?” — classic men logic. But she has feeding stations- and is definately a bully to all the other chickens. She gets to eat first- all the good stuff, then everyone else follows. hmmm.

 

[angc11]

She's not broody right? Sounds like she's not if she's still laying and not nest sitting. But the rest of her actions (puffing up, vocalizing, wings out, charging) sound like a broody hen so you could be onto something thinking it's a hormonal thing since it's hormonal with broodies as well. The only times I've been attacked by hens like you're describing are when they are broody and I pull them off their nests to go eat. I'll walk away to do something else and they will hunt me down to fly at my head. One broody got me just below the eye with her claws and another landed on my head and dug her claws into my scalp. They'll also fly up on my shoulder and peck the hell out of me. When they're not broody they're quite scared of me and avoid me at all costs. When they're broody, there seems to be a price on my head.