Suddenly Aggressive Pullet

[woogies]

So we have 5, 8 week old bantams. We had thought the pecking order was fairly well established at this point, with the two largest Rhode Island Red's taking the top spot. However this morning I came out to our smallest, a Barred English Game, viciously going for the Reds, aggressively pulling feathers, jumping on them, and instigating conflict.

We've separated her into chicken jail. Any ideas what could have caused this sudden aggression and how to remedy it?

 

[nuthatched]

Ate you sure it's a pullet?
How much space fo they have?

 

[BoundlessLove]

Please post pictures of these birds and their coop area.

 

[dearmeghann]

8 weeks is when our bantam cockerel started to show out, like @nuthatched said, are you sure it's a pullet?

Also, do you have any good obstacles in the run? Ensure that there are places for them to go and hide. Pics of the area would be great!

 

[woogies]

Had some concern she might be a he, but I've been very good at being able to tell.

There are 7 chickens total (5 younger, 2 mature silkies). Coop is a about 4x6. There are 2 runs and small tractor, totaling about 128sqft of available run space.

 

[dearmeghann]

Love the triangle "fort"! We're planning on making something similar in our tarped run. Does it feel cooler underneath?

 

[dearmeghann]

I'll let the experts chime in if she's a cockerel. I'm terrible at that, haha!

Do you have a feeder/waterer in the metal run? Was the aggression near the food? I wonder if having a separate feed area might help.

Also, it could have been pecking order drama that went too far. Have you let her out of chicken jail? How is she doing now? Usually a few hours is all we needed to do to stop the dramatics.

 

[woogies]

Love the triangle "fort"! We're planning on making something similar in our tarped run. Does it feel cooler underneath?

I built it from scraps from a different project and it actually turned out to be a hit with them. It is noticeably cooler, partly because there's a pit dug out.

Generally they have access to at least water in the secondary run. The aggression was occurring even away from food. She was actively seeking the other girl out.

I'm planning on releasing her in a bit to see how things go.

 

[dearmeghann]

I built it from scraps from a different project and it actually turned out to be a hit with them. It is noticeably cooler, partly because there's a pit dug out.

Generally they have access to at least water in the secondary run. The aggression was occurring even away from food. She was actively seeking the other girl out.

I'm planning on releasing her in a bit to see how things go.

We have so many little pieces floating around, we can totally create this! Thank you for the inspo!

We've gotten really lucky with our chicks (and even integrating our chicks to the bigs.) in regards to pecking order business. There's always going to be those neck dances and little tiffs but no blood and no real aggressive feather pulling. Are your reds super gentle in nature?

 

[woogies]

We have so many little pieces floating around, we can totally create this! Thank you for the inspo!

We've gotten really lucky with our chicks (and even integrating our chicks to the bigs.) in regards to pecking order business. There's always going to be those neck dances and little tiffs but no blood and no real aggressive feather pulling. Are your reds super gentle in nature?

The older hens do occasionally bully them, seemingly to put them in their place, but no real aggression.

The Reds are actually fairly mild mannered. Except to our Barred pullet, which was mostly raised inside due to early illness. She's been relentlessly bullied by them (although the other pullets are totally ok with her now) since we moved her back, despite her being one of the largest of the bunch.

We let the game hen back out, and things seem to be back to normal with no signs of aggression so far