Topic of the Week - Chicken Behaviour and Flock Dynamics Part 2 - Bullying Behaviour

[RadEggs]

As hens age, dominance can change. Has anyone noticed this at all, I mean like actually seen it or studied it? Does it just happen one day, a squabble and poof there's a new leader or does this turn into an entire re determining the whole pecking order and another few weeks of cluck drama?

Aaron

This is happening with my girls right now, actually. It takes a couple squabbles (weeks of not very violent ones, actualy), but in my case, one if the chickens is barley involved. The 2 lowest in the pecking order are fighting, but the other one is barley involved.

 

[RadEggs]

I still dont know how I would go about culling a chicken I've realized tho, that I should not rely on others to do it. My circus, my monkeys (errr, chickens)

You can always try to sell or give away the chicken, too, if it is to hard for you.

 

[thecatumbrella]

We had a pullet start to bully as she was coming into maturity. Our small flock of 4 does not have the option to free range, so it was a tough decision between rehab and rehome. We decided rehoming would be the least stressful option for the birds. Found a wonderful home that free ranges full time, and has first hand experience rehabbing RiR and sex-link bullies. All the chickens are happy and thriving.

I guess my point is that we have a lower tolerance when dealing with a small flock in confinement. There's not enough birds to spread the abuse around (), and free ranging is the ultimate distraction from misbehavior.

 

[Fluffydoodlebutt]

I have a silkie girl that gets picked on every now and again, but we are lucky enough to have such a good rooster that protects her and keeps the one or two meanie ones at bay. He lubs her

 

[townchicks]

I have had good success with isolating the bully. I have kept the small prefab coop/ run combo that I got when I started in chickens. It is a great solution for many things, bully jail as well as sickbay, quarantine, introduction.

 

[Momma-Hen-Misti]

Off with their heads! Eat them!

Well that's one method of managing a bully in the flock. I don't handle it that way myself, but it's definitely an option.

Another option is to rehome, but making it someone else's problem seems like a kind of cop-out, but it's a definitely an option. Except in flocks such as mine where a contagious avian virus is present - you certainly don't want to be spreading that around to other flocks.

What I do is to utilize a "jail" within the run. Either the bully or the victim spend time incarcerated to prevent direct contact, yet they are still in full view of the flock. This gets tricky when the bully happens to be laying. I need to keep an eye on her to pick up signs she needs access to a nest. The best thing is to trade off by letting the bully and victim take turns in jail.

I'm currently addressing this problem in my flock. A two-year old Cream Legbar has turned into a veritable terrorist. She is terrorizing nearly everyone, launching herself at anyone younger, but her main target is a six-year old Speckled Sussex. The consequences of constant bullying has resulted in appetite and subsequent weight loss in this older hen.

When this happens, things have become serious and intervention is absolutely necessary. This victim has lost all self confidence and has been spending her days hiding in the coop, not daring to try to approach the feeder for fear of being ambushed.

I first learned the value of giving a chronic victim a "vacation" from her tormentor years ago. After two or three weeks of spending daytime in jail, her self confidence was restored and she was able to stand up for herself from then on. The transformation was that stunning. This also serves to interrupt the bullying behavior, and many times, it can reform the bully.

Both of my barred rock pullets I got as chicks in March 2023 are bullies! People thought I had gotten roosters because of their aggressive nature in the brooder. They would charge toward my hand when I reached in! They are nearly a year old & it didn't take them long to move up the pecking order which totally floored me. One of them started a few months ago, mounting the other & "mated" her. I've witnessed it a few times. I thought one br was just "mating" the other br until a few nights ago. I saw the br mount one of my OG ladies! I don't even know who to put in jail. I need two jails!