Should I or shouldn't I?

[Bartonsfinest]

Okay, I know this might sound weird but I have seven hens ranging from ages one and a half to 9 months old and they act like bitches to one another. It's like a chicken mean girls movie sometimes lol. My question is should I get a rooster to kind of like maybe level out some of t the strong personalities. I never really stopped to think about my chicken's having babies I got my chickens for pets. The eggs are just a bonus. I'm a vegetarian so I don't even eat chicken So anybody has this problem or has any advice or an opinion I would appreciate it

 

[Tookie]

Are they all really picking on one another? Or is it certain ones?
How big is your coop and run?
What's their diet?
Did you recently add any new birds to the flock?
A rooster probably won't sort things out.

 

[Morrigan]

It's a simple fact that chickens can appear to be quite mean to one another. All those sayings about pecking order, hen-pecked, etc. have become axioms for a reason. They are very status oriented animals.

A really good rooster might help the keep the peace. But a middling or bad rooster would probably make your problems worse.

To have a peaceful flock you 1) need plenty of space, including things that break up sight lines to allow low status chickens to chill out of sight, 2) plenty of key resources, as in multiple food and water stations, and generous roosting spaces, so as to reduce competition; and 3) a plan to get rid of any chickens that seem temperamentally unsuited to live in peacefully within the flock.

 

[Bartonsfinest]

My 1 year old black sex links hen Mcnuggets is alpha of my little flock of 7 she's is a total bully to my 4, 8 month old hens 2 of those 8 month old hens are bigger then nuggets to but my what I think is strange she leaves my 8 month old black jersey giant hen onyx alone In the day tine they are all free range but at nite they sleep in two separate coops because nuggets scares them so much that the younger ones don't want to be in the same coop. So I put Mcnuggets and her sister McChicken in my old coop with a attached run it's a 6x14. And my 5 youngest hens sleep in the new coop it's 6x6 x12 . There's no run attached to the new coop yet because I have to tear the old one down. They eat organic scratch feed I give them worms when I let them out in the am and a healthy snack like organic corn or yams oats stuff like that when they go into the coop at night. No new chickens since I got the 5 hens in may and I have been taking it super slow on intergrading them together

 

[WhiteCollarWeezy]

Okay, I know this might sound weird

Not weird at all.

but I have seven hens ranging from ages one and a half to 9 months old and they act like bitches to one another.

the older hens see these younger "broads" and think which one can I push over and prove dominance. Then the others might see and not question me....

It's like a chicken mean girls movie sometimes lol.

my ducks form cliques like teenagers
.
****with all females....no matter what species willl compete for attention, food, happiness, or just to be mean. Animal nature.

My question is should I get a rooster to kind of like maybe level out some of t the strong personalities.

a rooster may level them out or make it worse...kinda 50...50. It's up to you though. Try it if you want. Raising birds for me has been lots of trail and error.

 

[Bartonsfinest]

It's been frustrating my husband worked really hard on building a new coop with all different kinds of roost bars with different heights 5 nesting boxes and I have places swings and mirrors in the new coop in case they get board in the coop and I even made a "chicken spa" outside in the yard of 5 huge tubs for dust baths. My husband wants to just place all of them into the new coops and shut the door and let them sort it out. I don't feel right doing that. We let one of the baby hens sleep in the old coop with my 2 black sex links at first no problems they went right to sleep but at 145 am omelette started to scream to be let out nuggets had her corned in the run of the new coop