where do you draw the line with your meanest bird?

[mamabahre]

I'm just curious...Our beautiful Australorp hen is real mean... She is not a nice girl at all, to the other girls or to humans.. She is at the top of the pecking order and she is merciless to my little SLW Liz Taylor. I am not impressed with her at all and I told DH if she doesn't smarten up she is going to get the ax.

Where do you draw the line? When do you say "enough is enough you are dinner!!" Maybe I am just thinking too much about how yummy she would taste.

 

[klf73]

I havent had that issue til this year

I have a california white that is picking on 2 of my wheaten ameraucana girls...only got her last year when I had a single chick hatch and it needed company...think I am just gonna place an ad and sell her...or let her out with the free range group...they will put her in her place

 

[emys]

On it's neck. (Sorry, couldn't resist the pun.)

You can try removing her for a few days and re-introducing her. Or - sometimes the flock IS better off without a bully and dinner can be an option.

 

[mamabahre]

hehe we have such a small flock that she isn't going to get much competition and we have a roo but he is still a baby and quarantined so he won't be with the grown up gals for quite a while...

I wouldn't sell her, I'd just eat her...She is just such a jerk. I try to go in the run to clean and she comes running at all fluffed out in attack mode..She thinks she's a roo. She tries to crow I swear.

 

[columbiacritter]

I had a SLW lie that and wished now I'd sent her to freezer camp a lot sooner than I did. Once she was gone the whole coop of birds relaxed and my egg production actually went up! No more tolerating mean roosters or violent Fems.

 

[mamabahre]

Quote:
Yeah thats what I'm asking, she is a bully, will another hen just replace her as a bully or will they just be happier in general. She is ALWAYS just chasing the others around all pissy for no real reason. She makes them get all flighty and nervous. I am thinking she might just make a nice dinner!

 

[teach1rusl]

I think you draw the line when it ruins your enjoyment of your flock. Mine are pets, so I won't eat one, but I did rehome one who was just making life miserable for a rather sickly, very sweet SF pullet.
Although she was fine with people, she would go out of her way to torment that poor bird, and I got sick of watching it. The biotch in question (LS)was a terrific layer not quite a year old, and I gave her away for free to a friend of DHs who keeps chickens. If I ate my birds, she would have contributed to my dinner plate.

 

[BillMinor68]

I just had a similar situation last night and came here looking for answers. I've got a blue splash maran that took over when our roos went to the table. Merle's gotten progressively meaner, and last night she lit into one of our four-week old chicks while I was moving them from their run back to the brooder in the coop. She did a fair job of destroying her left wing before I could stop her. The chicks have been in an adjoining run since hatching out and all the other hens seem to be adjusting well to their presence. Now that Merle's tasted blood, I don't think there's any going back. I think the chick will make it, I scrubbed the wounded wing with betadine, and am keeping it moist with neosporine. Right now, she's peeping away happily in a little dog crate in the house. I think we'll name her Nemo. As for Merle, we haven't had chicken enchiladas in a while and it will be a relief to not have be so hyper-vigilant over the brood.

 

[bburn]

When you DH leaves town and you have to use a piece of tin almost as tall as you are to go in and check for eggs! Loaded up my mean rooster last night and took him to the chicken swap this morning, backed the truck in and had him sold in three minutes!!! The fella looked at me and said you got too many roo's? I said no, he hates my guts, you gonna make soup? He said he was not scared of 'no rooster'.....I said then you get him out of the crate then......and my DGD and I took the money and went and bought breakfast!

bahahahahaha

 

[mamabahre]

hehe, my aunt used to have a rooster that would chase us kids all the way to the front door and leave claw marks in the wood door.

He finally got my cousin because the kid fell and the rooster clawed the heck out of his back..I love my Aunt, as soon as she cleaned up my cousin she went out to the rooster, caught and chopped his head off in front of all of us (ages ranging from 4-8)...
She is a tough cookie.