Two hens peck at eachother??

[CKfarm22]

Hey y’all, i have two hens that are kind of rough with eachother. Both are around 22/23 weeks old. One is smaller then the other. I was holding the smaller one in the hands and the bigger one came over and bit the smaller ones ear really hard. I got the smaller one away and i tried to almost shame the other one. A little while later, i heard this god awful screech coming from the run, i’m not too sure what happened but when i went out, they were almost circling each other, like dancing. Does anyone know what kind of behavior this is or why they do it? Is it jealousy? Should i separate them? I don’t want to have two hens fighting and pecking at eachother.

 

[PippinTheChicken]

Separate them until an expert finds this thread

 

[aart]

Hey y’all, i have two hens that are kind of rough with eachother. Both are around 22/23 weeks old. One is smaller then the other. I was holding the smaller one in the hands and the bigger one came over and bit the smaller ones ear really hard. I got the smaller one away and i tried to almost shame the other one. A little while later, i heard this god awful screech coming from the run, i’m not too sure what happened but when i went out, they were almost circling each other, like dancing. Does anyone know what kind of behavior this is or why they do it? Is it jealousy? Should i separate them? I don’t want to have two hens fighting and pecking at eachother.

Do you only have the two birds?
Are you positive they are both females?
Have you raised them together since they were chicks?

How big is their coop and run, in feet by feet?
Dimensions an pics would help here.

Pecking is part of the chicken world, it's how they communicate.
As long as no one is getting bloodied or pinned down and beaten, leave them to do their thing.

 

[CKfarm22]

Do you only have the two birds?
Are you positive they are both females?
Have you raised them together since they were chicks?

How big is their coop and run, in feet by feet?
Dimensions an pics would help here.

Pecking is part of the chicken world, it's how they communicate.
As long as no one is getting bloodied or pinned down and beaten, leave them to do their thing.

I have three hens. Yes i believe as of right now they are all hens. They were raised together as chicks. The run isn’t very big maybe 10ftx5ftx5ft. The coop alone is 4ftx5ft plus a nest box.

 

[Iluveggers]

Could you post a pic of them?

 

[rosemarythyme]

Can you post a photo of your set up, both coop and run?

From your description it sounds like the latter event was a pecking order fight, which is normal, as long as it doesn't continue too much past the conclusion of the fight. Once the fight is over the higher ranked bird will usually chase off the lower one, and that should be that, but your run sounds like it's a bit narrow so that could possibly cause difficulties.

 

[CKfarm22]

Can you post a photo of your set up, both coop and run?

From your description it sounds like the latter event was a pecking order fight, which is normal, as long as it doesn't continue too much past the conclusion of the fight. Once the fight is over the higher ranked bird will usually chase off the lower one, and that should be that, but your run sounds like it's a bit narrow so that could possibly cause difficulties.

It’s homemade so it could possibly be too small, we do let them free range when we’re around outside

 

[CKfarm22]

Can you post a photo of your set up, both coop and run?

From your description it sounds like the latter event was a pecking order fight, which is normal, as long as it doesn't continue too much past the conclusion of the fight. Once the fight is over the higher ranked bird will usually chase off the lower one, and that should be that, but your run sounds like it's a bit narrow so that could possibly cause difficulties.

 

[CKfarm22]

Could you post a pic of them?

 

[rosemarythyme]

It’s homemade so it could possibly be too small, we do let them free range when we’re around outside

So the issue with having a small run, even for a small flock like yours, is you simply don't have space to add clutter to provide hiding spaces for lower ranked birds (as clutter eats up floor space). What clutter does is 1) keep birds busy by giving them something to interact with and 2) breaks line of sight to stop/reduce pursuit from higher ranked birds.

Is there any possibility of expanding the run? Widthwise, preferably