I have 5 laying hens, all 6 months - 2 years old. I would hatch a batch/buy chicks, let them all join the flock when big enough and eventually remove the ones I didn't want to keep. This has prevented singling out and bullying since I was merging two flocks. Now I have a bunch of different egg colors which was the initial goal, it's just taken 2 years to accomplish lol.
When I had 10-15 chickens I would let them choose which coop to sleep in. We have an Omlet Cube and a small wooden coop we threw together out of scrap wood. Now that there's 5 I've closed the wood coop and everyone is using the Omlet. 3 of the girls are small (2 cream legbar crosses and 1 ameraucana) 1 medium and 1 Marans that I'm pretty sure is secretly a turkey because she's massive.
Okay that's the backstory, here's the problem. I'm not sure at what point this started happening but the massive Marans is not letting anyone in the coop at night and she's aggressive if I put a hen in while she's in there. They've been sleeping on the roost bar inside the run. She's not even top of the pecking order but she's keep the head hen out.
My initial thought was the Omlet is too crowded but this has never been an issue with any of my other chickens and we've had a fair amount of rotation. It's only just started being an issue with her.
2 nights in a row I pulled the Marans out and got everyone else into the coop (except the one smarty who sleeps in a tree lol) and then put the Marans back in dark. But I'm 7 months pregnant and really can't be going out every night and rearranging chickens. Can I stop this or does she need to go? Should I just open the wood coop back up (it doesn't have an autodoor like the Omlet so long term I won't be closing it at night) and let them figure it out? Should I shut the Marans in the wood coop at night for a week? When she had access to it she slept in the nest box
When I had 10-15 chickens I would let them choose which coop to sleep in. We have an Omlet Cube and a small wooden coop we threw together out of scrap wood. Now that there's 5 I've closed the wood coop and everyone is using the Omlet. 3 of the girls are small (2 cream legbar crosses and 1 ameraucana) 1 medium and 1 Marans that I'm pretty sure is secretly a turkey because she's massive.
Okay that's the backstory, here's the problem. I'm not sure at what point this started happening but the massive Marans is not letting anyone in the coop at night and she's aggressive if I put a hen in while she's in there. They've been sleeping on the roost bar inside the run. She's not even top of the pecking order but she's keep the head hen out.
My initial thought was the Omlet is too crowded but this has never been an issue with any of my other chickens and we've had a fair amount of rotation. It's only just started being an issue with her.
2 nights in a row I pulled the Marans out and got everyone else into the coop (except the one smarty who sleeps in a tree lol) and then put the Marans back in dark. But I'm 7 months pregnant and really can't be going out every night and rearranging chickens. Can I stop this or does she need to go? Should I just open the wood coop back up (it doesn't have an autodoor like the Omlet so long term I won't be closing it at night) and let them figure it out? Should I shut the Marans in the wood coop at night for a week? When she had access to it she slept in the nest box
