who's the boss?

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earlydreamer

earlydreamer

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Nov 17, 2015
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Alabama
(Please forgive my poor internet skills.) I haven't had chickens since I had 5 as pets back 50+ years ago. They were nice chickens. I have 4 hens now (plus 7 chickens I'm housing for a friend in a separate area). My rooster was - does vicious sound right? (My friends roosters are pleasant enough.) So - one of my hens has decided she should take the place of the now absent rooster. She bites. For real! Jumps up and pecks - and that beak can hurt. How do I deal with her and/or how will I survive when summer comes back and I'm not wearing heavy clothes? They are barred rock hens. I'm confused by the "New Member Introductions". Is this a new thread or was I to introduce myself? Early dreamer -> late bloomer, life got in the way.
 
Hi :welcome

Glad you could join the flock! Yes this is the new members section, your post is fine here though :D
Even though you dint have a roo anymore the hens will still have a pecking order. It sounds like your pecking hen has taken on the roll of leader. If she were mine I would take the firm approach with her and show her that your boss. If she pecks pick her up so she can't get at you, this worked for me with a pecky hen that I had. She learnt if she pecked she would get picked up and she didn't want to be. She wasn't one of my friendliest ones so soon got the gist of things.
You could also ask in the behaivour section ~https://www.backyardchickens.com/f/18/chicken-behaviors-and-egglaying

Enjoy BYC :frow
 
Welcome earlydreamer,

Glad you got back into chickens, they can be so much fun. Sometimes though, they can be a nuisance like your barred rock is behaving. I also have 2 barred rocks & one of them started out as a very Nosey Rosey. It didn't matter what I was doing in the run or coop, she had to be in my face & getting attention. Or if not, she would pick/bite like yours. I started treating her like a naughty rooster & would carry her around for a bit like Yorkshire suggested. And if that didn't work I would press her to the ground like a rooster does to a hen & tap her on the top of her head if she picked me. Using both of these techniques finally paid off. She no longer behaves like that. Hope your hen starts behaving herself. She also may be stepping up to the roo's position if you newly removed the roo from the flock. I have had that happen with one of my girls as well & I found isolating her for a day usually helped for a while. If she acted up, back in the isolation cage she went. Best wishes & a very warm welcome to BYC.
 
Welcome to BYC. Glad you decided to join our flock. NorthFlChick and ChickenLady2014 have done a nice job answering your questions and NorthFlChick has given you a good link, so I'll just say, "If you haven't done so already, definitely check out our Learning Center at https://www.backyardchickens.com/atype/1/Learning_Center. There is lots of useful information there. Please feel free to ask any questions you may have. We are here to help in any way we can. Cheers."
 
welcome-byc.gif


One of my red sex link girls would peck so hard, she would draw blood. I did the same thing Yorkshire coop did with hers...I picked my girl up, carried her around for a bit and only let her down when she calmed down (I wouldn't let her down while she was squirming). It didn't take long for her to figure out what not to do and now, she is my lap sitting girl. She loves attention!

Good luck to you with your girl, if she'll stop acting that way, you'll have more fun spending time with your flock.
 
Welcome to the BYC flock, glad you joined us. I'm wondering if you just need a good tempered replacement rooster. Maybe then she will go back to acting like an hen.
 

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