What do you do with a crabby chicken?

[dwegg]

I also have heard that EE are friendly and easy going but I have two EE's and one is really mean and does exactly the same stuff like running at others with her head down and chasing anyone who even flinches from her antics. She does not like being touched, stays her distance and pecks at others who are younger than her. She spends most of her time when free-ranging, flying at others and chasing them around. She is 15 months old!
She also pecked out the tail feathers of my other EE and pecked her till she bleed, and she bleed a lot ( I then bathed the injured girl and put 'blue' antiseptic spray one her, i also gave them ground meat as a treat each day in case it had something to do with the protein and it seemed to stop straight away...fingers crossed!). the injured EE has almost grown her tail back now and she lays the most beautiful blue eggs.
i love the blue and green eggs I get from them but friendly they are not!

 

[rstampa]

I have a 24 week old EE. She was so sweet when she was a chick. Up to around 8 weeks old. Then she must have eaten a nasty pill because that's all she has been since then. Not so much with the other hens but toward me. She'll run up and bite me. These are not simple pecks eather. Once when I was sitting down on my chair by the pond she jumps up and actually got a chunk of flesh from my arm. I chased her away but if I'm not watching out for her she'll bite my jeans or shoes. She is down right nasty. All my other hens are so sweet and follow me everywhere.
So I guess they're like children. You raise them as best you can but there is always one that turns out bad.

 

[Hollywood Chickens]

Quote:
One of my EEs was so mean that she pecked at my fathers eyes, but once she started laying she was fine.

EEs get like that, my BRs never acted like that.

 

[jeslewmazer]

Don't know if this will help.....remember they are animals and they are domesticated over generations from wild animals........I don't have enough experience with EEs but started raising heavy breeds about 2years ago this will be my 3rd year and my hens got very aggressive and it up set me. I thought I was doing everything right but I was of course wrong....I thought they would be easier than game chickens.......wrong there too. I had bloody chickens and everything.......so I added floating catfish food to my feed and that cleared my angry hens. No more blood and no more mean hens.......now they won't even peck my shoes. Seems they were missing something and that was their way of letting it out.

 

[JakRat]

you could call the dog whisperer...I tried to sush my chickens how he does but they just looked at me like "soooo when do we get our safflowers seeds"

 

[squeakyballs]

Quote:
:

Chicken whisperer!

 

[Poulets De Cajun]

Quote:
Put ketchup on it and serve it with mashed potatoes...

 

[leenie]

My EE's were standoffish until the rooster left, which totally changed the dynamics and they also started to lay. Now they are very friendly and wait in line to be held and petted. It's been an amazing transformation these past 3 weeks. Don't give up on the youngester, I thought none of my girls had any real personality until just recently. It's like whew, we got through puberty!

 

[gypsymom]

Thanks for all the feedback! This is my first chicken-raising experience so I don't know what to expect. I was interested to hear that they often change when they start laying. Makes sense that they have hormonal issues like the rest of us. I did feel I shouldn't write off Annabelle without making more effort. Although she was handled, fed and sat with the same as my others, I hadn't had as much contact since they start free-ranging. So yesterday when I sent them to bed in the coop, I picked each of them up for a little petting, including Annabelle. As usual, she ran screaming away when I tried to touch her, but I persevered and held her on my lap and petted her. Lo and behold, she began settling and clucking, and when I released my grip she stayed put. She seemed to get over her anxiety a bit and even enjoy the petting. I am going to do this every evening with each of them. When I put them in the coop they are in close proximity and can sit in my lap, and at the end of the day they are mellow and sleepy.

 

[Sir Birdaholic]

SPANK THAT CHICKEN!