Lazygaze
Songster
- Dec 3, 2020
- 208
- 157
- 141
Hello all.
What was once my friendliest and sweetest pullet has become aggressive, with me only. I have 2 chickens (I know minimum 3 is optimal but I recently lost one, and anyway this was happening before my third died). Of the two she is is the less dominant, bottom of the pecking order. She will attack my wrist - I actuallly posted about this a while back when she first started, wondering if my FitBit was making noises she could hear and I couldn’t, because it started with her going for that, but now she seems to have taken a dislike just to my wrist, and today she drew blood. I pinned her down to the floor with both hands, gently but so she couldn’t get out of it, for probably 20/30 seconds, she didn’t like it and stopped after that, then half an hour later when I went to take them some treats () she went to do it again but I saw her stop and think and then decide against it.
Can anyone give me an idea of why she might be doing this? Some days she even does the aggressive running jump thing. I wonder if she is trying to find her place in a pecking order she thinks I am part of- though she acts SO submissively with the top chicken. What is the best way of dealing with a pullet who does this? I’ve read that ‘pecking’ them back with thumb and fore finger works but I’ve stopped doing this as my fingers are obviously fatter than a beak and I just felt like I was hitting her I don’t have long fingernails. I don’t like pinning her either but that has more success. If I remember to take my watch off when I go into her space that helps a bit, but now she does just go for my wrist regardless, and I don’t want to take my watch off every day because I’ll eventually lose it!
Advice really gratefully received!
What was once my friendliest and sweetest pullet has become aggressive, with me only. I have 2 chickens (I know minimum 3 is optimal but I recently lost one, and anyway this was happening before my third died). Of the two she is is the less dominant, bottom of the pecking order. She will attack my wrist - I actuallly posted about this a while back when she first started, wondering if my FitBit was making noises she could hear and I couldn’t, because it started with her going for that, but now she seems to have taken a dislike just to my wrist, and today she drew blood. I pinned her down to the floor with both hands, gently but so she couldn’t get out of it, for probably 20/30 seconds, she didn’t like it and stopped after that, then half an hour later when I went to take them some treats () she went to do it again but I saw her stop and think and then decide against it.
Can anyone give me an idea of why she might be doing this? Some days she even does the aggressive running jump thing. I wonder if she is trying to find her place in a pecking order she thinks I am part of- though she acts SO submissively with the top chicken. What is the best way of dealing with a pullet who does this? I’ve read that ‘pecking’ them back with thumb and fore finger works but I’ve stopped doing this as my fingers are obviously fatter than a beak and I just felt like I was hitting her I don’t have long fingernails. I don’t like pinning her either but that has more success. If I remember to take my watch off when I go into her space that helps a bit, but now she does just go for my wrist regardless, and I don’t want to take my watch off every day because I’ll eventually lose it!
Advice really gratefully received!