What are the causes of a GROUCHY chicken?

[thndrdancr]

Well, I dont know WHAT is wrong with my EE, Fussy.
She is terrorizing poor Red lately, Red has spots all over her comb from where she has been pecked.
When I give them treats, Fussy pecks her so hard she backs off and then Fussy eats it all herself. Red is scared to death of her lately.
This is really really weird, Fussy adores Red and wont go anywhere without her and cries when she is out of sight even.
I had been wondering if Fussy was working her way to broody, but she only sits in the nestbox a few hours, then is running around like normal the rest of the day.
Now that the days are colder, I havent give them their freerange time as much as I used to. That and she hates rainy days and its been very rainy lately. But today was sunny and halfway decent, so I dont know what the problem is.
I put them in their box tonite and poor Red got so scared with Fussy's behavior, she tried to fly up and out, and was beating herself against the box.
What would cause a normally easy going chicken to become a monster like this? She is being a pain in the arse!
Jill

 

[arlee453]

How old is she? Puberty?? I know that's what the typical teenager is like...

 

[thndrdancr]

Hmm, she started laying September 1st and she was 22 weeks then, so no puberty or I would say that was it, hmm, figuring...they would both be 7 month old now.
This is like PMS, only bigger! (The men might not think so!)

 

[FarmerDenise]

Do you only have the two hens? When it was just me and my sister growing up the fights could get pretty ugly

, but no-one else could mess with my sister.
Have you considered letting your hens out, even when you think the weather is bad? Maybe it's cabin fever?...
Just thinking of what I might try.

 

[thndrdancr]

It could be cabin fever I guess, but if that is the case, boy are we in for a very long winter.

I am just puzzled, she has never acted this way before, they have their little squabbles a lot, but poor Red is a small chicken and she was actually scared tonite, wanting OUT! And watching them was weird, there was no place Red could go to not incur Fussy's wrath. Fussy is huge, so it's not a fair fight by any means. I just dont know the problem. She is just being MEAN, and its not normally in her character to do so. Red, I can see being mean, but not my Fussy. She is usually the more mild mannered and gentler of the two.

Well for once, I took Red out of the box and she got all the attention and lovin tonite, poor baby.

I really dont know if this relates or not, but DH took Red's egg out of the nestbox while she was still in there this morning. She must have been in there quite a while, which is unusual, she usually goes in, does her business and is out again within half hour, like clockwork and thats all done and over with by 9 am. Well, he took the egg out at around 11, apparently she was still in the nestbox, altho she didnt have the egg UNDER her...dh grabbed it up and she went nuts clucking and hollering. So who knows, maybe I have TWO hormonal chickens? But why would that make Fussy upset?

Who knows, maybe sis is right and I need a nestbox for each one of the crazy things!

 

[FarmerDenise]

I agree with separating them, and keeping poor little red safe. Hopefully you'll be able to figure out what's going on with the two of them tomorrow. It's hard & time consuming to keep a bird separated from the rest all the time.
Sometimes there is no explanation as far as we humans are concerned. But close observation can help us a lot. It's often all we got.
good luck!