Ribh's D'Coopage

[Ribh]

It got warm today ~ up to 28C [82F] & no breeze.
I opened the run early & my girls were as good as gold until 3pm ~ which is usually about when I feed them. It was still hot so I just poked my nose out to check what they were up too. Sure enough Lottie & both Campines were running amok in the gardens. I rounded them up & waited another hour before throwing some scraps over the fence. Lottie & Tuppence were both out. I didn't even bother rounding them up. They saw the bowl & knew immediately I had treats. They both came running & squatted for me to pick them up & lift them over the fence! No running around the perimeter for Tuppence either, just up & over! Total nut jobs!

 

[Shadrach]

The frizzle is Lavender. She's a big girl ~ the biggest girl I own & sometimes something of a bully but very sweet in between times.

Bully hens.
https://brill.com/view/journals/beh/137/6/article-p705_3.xml

 

[MaryJanet]

Hi yall! Sorry I’ve been gone so long.. life got a little rough and a lot hectic... I just saw your messages to me and I thank you all for checking in.. I miss my chicken friends! Hope to try and be around a little more often.. it’s been crazy... the gals are okay.. only about three eggs a day for now .. 16 chickens and only three eggs
Then we went straight from REALLY hot weather to REALLY cold.. in about 5 minutes! Their water actually froze!! If you can believe that! But it thawed quickly...

See yall soon ... my tablet is about to die...
Night.. chicken friends

So happy to see a message from you!!

 

[rjohns39]

Good evening folks

Whodat, it's great to hear from you.

 

[Grammy60]

Good evening everyone

 

[BY Bob]

Hi yall! Sorry I’ve been gone so long.. life got a little rough and a lot hectic... I just saw your messages to me and I thank you all for checking in.. I miss my chicken friends! Hope to try and be around a little more often.. it’s been crazy... the gals are okay.. only about three eggs a day for now .. 16 chickens and only three eggs
Then we went straight from REALLY hot weather to REALLY cold.. in about 5 minutes! Their water actually froze!! If you can believe that! But it thawed quickly...

See yall soon ... my tablet is about to die...
Night.. chicken friends

There you are! I was worried about you.

So all those green egg layers are taking a break. Sorry to hear that. No really, I am.

It will be great to have you back. Glad everything else is OK.

 

[WhoDatChick]

Mornin all! Thank yall so much for the warm welcome back! .. I feel loved ... and Bob.. I have four that I know are laying for now.. Maryn- Black Australorp.. Maggie&Daffy- new EEs... and Lilly- LB.... oh, and on occasion.. Nilky... don’t really know what’s different cuz last year this time.. the original group never stopped or even slowed down once they started laying... laid beautifully all winter long..

 

[Ribh]

Bully hens.
https://brill.com/view/journals/beh/137/6/article-p705_3.xml

I couldn't read the whole article but certainly my heavier hens are higher up the social order. The exception was my Blue Australorp bantam. She never challenged the top hens but no~one else messed with her. She was always high ranking even as a very new bird. Lavender's sheer bulk means other birds usually move out of her way & that means she doesn't usually have to be aggressive.

 

[Shadrach]

I couldn't read the whole article but certainly my heavier hens are higher up the social order. The exception was my Blue Australorp bantam. She never challenged the top hens but no~one else messed with her. She was always high ranking even as a very new bird. Lavender's sheer bulk means other birds usually move out of her way & that means she doesn't usually have to be aggressive.

It's an interesting experiment. I found it to be a reasonable behavior predictor, but it only seems to work within tribes.
Here it's worked something like this. The big hens as you note tend not to have to throw their weight around. This means they don't fight as much as a junior hen might in maintaining her position in the social order. the study does point out that winning disputes is an important factor.
I've had and still got come to that a couple of serious fighting hens. I had one who took on two young roosters and their mother in a fight and she wasn't losing. I broke it up when I got there but I could see them fighting for a few seconds before I could intervene.
The senior hen in her tribe at the time was big but very easy going and the fighting hen accepted her authority. A large hen from another tribe on the other hand she would fight if push came to shove. She was a bit of a liability and a complete nutter.

 

[Ribh]

It was my bantam's behaviour I found really odd. It was like in her own mind she was much bigger than she was in reality. It probably helped that when she joined the flock my lead hens were both Australorps. As you have noted, like tends to hob~nob with like & so she always ran with the big girls. In turn they accepted her. The only pullet out of that batch that was immediately accepted as one of their flock! When she took on another hen it wasn't just a matter of fluffing up. She could go straight up in the air a good 3 or 4 feet ~ towering over any other hen. The other girls very rarely messed with her because she never lost.