I have five chickens and one has started pecking another. What shall I do?

Question

I have five chickens from one brood. I had 2 originally and then had the other three after my friend couldn't look after them. One of the originals has started pecking one of the other three (she is a slightly lighter colour and a little smaller than our original chickens). Now the pecked one seems to be very docile and tends to stay in her coop rather than come out and be with the rest of them. She isn't badly pecked but seems to be suffering more emotionally than anything. What shall I do?

Answer 1

There is two things that coud be happening.

1. They are establishing a pecking order. The originals are showing the new girls that they rule the roost.

2. They do not like or accept the new girls.

If the pecking gets bad, they make a product to put on the chicken to stop the pecking. I believe its called Blue Kote, but I'm not positive.

Answer 2

I've never even seen a live chicken but, until I got some good answers, I would separate the abused bird from the pecking menace. maybe you could get another younger chicken and they could have their own space.

Answer 3

They are only setting the pecking order letting the others know who is in charge,it happens in every flock.It is usually nothing to worry about it usually atops after a while.I wouldnt be too worried unless they are pecked so badly that they are bleeding.In which case you will have to remove the hurt one or they will kill her.Just watch them closely for a while.Good luck!

Answer 4

Shera M is right; they are just establishing a pecking order. As for her second comment, well I have never met any chickens that liked newcomers.  

As for what you can do there are many options.

I have heard of this Blue Kote but I am not sure if it works or not. I personally have never used it I like to stick to other ways of handling to much pecking.

Discipline- Yes, you can discipline a chicken. When you see them picking on the new girl grab them tell them firmly no and look them up in a little pen by themselves for a half an hour. Then let them out. Repeat this until they decide to behave.

More space- The smaller your space is the more likely the bird that is on the bottom of the pecking order is going to get attacked and possibly hurt. So offer her some space to escape and make sure that there are no areas where she can get trapped.

Feeding/Water- It is well known that chickens do not like to share. So why would they let a new hen eat what they consider theirs? Make sure that there is plenty of space around the water/feed dishes so that your hen can eat without getting picked on. If not then you may have to feed her separately from the others.

Feeling down- Being depressed is always possible, but make sure that your hen isn’t ill. If she is ill then she could possibly pass on a sickness to the other birds. Remember that when she is depressed she has a higher chance of getting sick. So try to boast her up.

Boasting her up-

Give her treats (and the other hens so they don’t get jealous, or feed her where the hens can’t see) You can give her little chunks of fruit or some vegetables if she isn’t roaming about the yard. You can also let her spend some time outside wandering around the yard.

If she doesn’t want to eat- You can give her some molasses in her grain. Do not give her any other sweets though because you don’t want to give her diarrhea.

Remove her- If things get to bad it would be best to remove her from the flock. You could also remove the bully.

Things to take into consideration-

Hens- Working together. When hens are raised with one another they sometimes will work together on beating up a newcomer.

Roosters- People think of roosters as big bad animals, but I will tell you that life with chickens is so much easier with a good lead rooster around. I have an Old English Game Rooster that watches over my other Old English Game hens. Old English tend to be more of a fighting breed, and the hens get into a lot of quarrels, especially during baby time. Thankfully I have George (my rooster) to keep them inline. He runs circles around them all, gives a few pecks on the head, and puts everyone in line. With him and my other lead roosters there are a lot less fights between my hens, because hens like to fight a lot. Truthfully I have more fights between my hens then my roosters. This however can get worse if you get a bad rooster.

Breed- Some breeds are calmer then others. Size really doesn’t matter. Keep a Cochin and a Junglefowl that (Junglefowls tend to be smaller) and you will find that the Junglefowl will rule that Cochin and may actually harm it. Some breeds are known to kill each other in fights. That is why so many people think that you can’t keep roosters in a pen with one another. But, really it has a lot to do with the breed. Keep a flock of Cochins and you will have fewer fights then with a flock of Junglefowl.

But, truthfully I wouldn't really worry about it to much unless she was hunched over and very depressed or looks like she is missing feathers or even bleeding from their attacks. As for her haning out with the other chickens, she may never do that as some birds just never get along.

Hope this helps, if you have any questions feel free to contact me via email,

Rhode Runner

Answer 5

its ok i have 11 chickens they do it all the time