Apologies in advance for lengthy details given, just want to cover all the bases so someone can give the proper help.
So we've had most of our chickens for a little over a year now, and for the most part I have gotten used to our flock's normal behavior. However I am not really that experienced, and would appreciate a little more experienced advice regarding a small problem I have been noticing recently with our birds. We have a mixed flock that includes chickens, ducks, and geese. We started with our first chickens (blue and black australorps), followed by geese and ducks, and then got a few more female chicks to raise. We bought 3 chicks from Tractor Supply, 2 of them were red producers and the last one was an unidentified black chick that they thought was an australorp. One of the chicks died within a little over a day from some sort of mass on its chest (husband says it was unabsorbed yolk?). But the other two were fine and grew very well, and about 2 months ago at 5 months of age we put them out with the flock. They were largely ignored by the others and did as they pleased. The red producer wound up escaping the pen about a month ago and was taken (we think by an owl) and we invested in a new enclosure that has worked wonderfully so far.
In any case, the remaining pullet we named "Dot" turned out not to be an australorp, but a barred rock. And about perhaps a week or two before her sister was taken she started basically bullying the other birds in the yard. She would attack the older hens, chase the goslings away from their food while making them cry until the adult goose would run her off biting at her butt, she was basically a barnyard bully and a jerk, and this behavior continued to escalate until the flock just seemingly had enough. The goslings, who have grown some beautiful feathers in at this point and look a lot more adult, started chasing her off beating their wings and screaming at her. They do this whenever they see her nearby before she even has a chance to do anything to offend them. The ducks never particularly tolerated her behavior, but started ganging up to chase her off if she gets too close. Our hens will bully her away from the best feeding spots and also gang up to attack her seemingly when the whim strikes them, as I have not noticed a pattern. Even our rooster Henry, who is by and large a calm and gentle man, will not tolerate her presence anymore, if she so much as tries to feed at the edge of the group while the hens are distracted with their food, Henry will notice her immediately and chase her off with his claws fully extended and send her screaming and running at top speed away from the group.
Basically nobody likes her anymore and she's gone from being the flock bully to being abused pretty much overnight, and it's getting to the point I am kind of worried about her being able to get enough food and just be happy here. She's around the age to start laying, though she has not yet, and I was wondering if there is any chance the flock will chill out (especially the rooster hopefully) as she gets older, and maybe forget/forgive her past behavior? Do birds hold grudges? Is there anything I can do to help them get along better at this point? As it is I already spread them out during feeding times, and they still just won't even tolerate Dot if they see her.
So we've had most of our chickens for a little over a year now, and for the most part I have gotten used to our flock's normal behavior. However I am not really that experienced, and would appreciate a little more experienced advice regarding a small problem I have been noticing recently with our birds. We have a mixed flock that includes chickens, ducks, and geese. We started with our first chickens (blue and black australorps), followed by geese and ducks, and then got a few more female chicks to raise. We bought 3 chicks from Tractor Supply, 2 of them were red producers and the last one was an unidentified black chick that they thought was an australorp. One of the chicks died within a little over a day from some sort of mass on its chest (husband says it was unabsorbed yolk?). But the other two were fine and grew very well, and about 2 months ago at 5 months of age we put them out with the flock. They were largely ignored by the others and did as they pleased. The red producer wound up escaping the pen about a month ago and was taken (we think by an owl) and we invested in a new enclosure that has worked wonderfully so far.
In any case, the remaining pullet we named "Dot" turned out not to be an australorp, but a barred rock. And about perhaps a week or two before her sister was taken she started basically bullying the other birds in the yard. She would attack the older hens, chase the goslings away from their food while making them cry until the adult goose would run her off biting at her butt, she was basically a barnyard bully and a jerk, and this behavior continued to escalate until the flock just seemingly had enough. The goslings, who have grown some beautiful feathers in at this point and look a lot more adult, started chasing her off beating their wings and screaming at her. They do this whenever they see her nearby before she even has a chance to do anything to offend them. The ducks never particularly tolerated her behavior, but started ganging up to chase her off if she gets too close. Our hens will bully her away from the best feeding spots and also gang up to attack her seemingly when the whim strikes them, as I have not noticed a pattern. Even our rooster Henry, who is by and large a calm and gentle man, will not tolerate her presence anymore, if she so much as tries to feed at the edge of the group while the hens are distracted with their food, Henry will notice her immediately and chase her off with his claws fully extended and send her screaming and running at top speed away from the group.
Basically nobody likes her anymore and she's gone from being the flock bully to being abused pretty much overnight, and it's getting to the point I am kind of worried about her being able to get enough food and just be happy here. She's around the age to start laying, though she has not yet, and I was wondering if there is any chance the flock will chill out (especially the rooster hopefully) as she gets older, and maybe forget/forgive her past behavior? Do birds hold grudges? Is there anything I can do to help them get along better at this point? As it is I already spread them out during feeding times, and they still just won't even tolerate Dot if they see her.
