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It had all been going so well!

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Got my girls a couple of days ago. Everything seemed to be going well, and they got on far better than I had expected. However today it seems to have taken a turn for the worse. There has been quite alot of fighting and a few feathers pulled out. One minute they will be fighting, and the next acting like nothing has happened.

I'm back to work tomorrow, so will be leaving them alone all day for the first time. I'm worried that they may cause some real damage while I'm not here. Can I do anything, or do I just have to leave them to it? Will it stop after a few days or will they always squabble? Also why did they seem to get on so well initially and now they don't?

Any advice welcome as I'm worried for my lovely ladies.

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when they first arrived, they were all on new territory and all a bit dazed and confused. Now that they're settling in, they're establishing the pecking order.

 

It's a bit like that carp you get fed on training courses; forming, storming, norming, performing.

 

First they get to know each other, then come the squabbles, then normality returns and then you get eggs! Or something like that :lol:

 

People do it too, watch the next series of Big Brother ;)

 

Just leave them to it, just make sure no blood is drawn and if it is, give the bully some time out and seperate them if you can. Also make sure there are enough food and water stations so that no one hen can prevent another one from eating or drinking.

 

Give them things to take their mind off bullying, some hanging treats like corn on the cob, peckablocks, cabbage, spinach etc etc.

 

Hope that helps, let us know how it goes.

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Everything is fine- try not to panic.

They are just being little madams and are fighting because all of them want to be on top of the pecking order. One of them will win eventually and it will all settle. It will take about a week. Although it is horrible to watch, it usually sounds worse than what it is. When we first got our girls 9 times out of 10 they where just making noise, not getting hurt. They are trying to show each other who is boss. Leave them to it, unless blood is drawn then the bleeding chook will need to be isolated, as the other chooks will be attracted to the bright colour and want to peck it more. Other than that everything will be Ok.

They won't always fight, only the occasional squable over a worm or something. The chook at the bottom of the pecking order will probably be pecked more often than the others because she is the weaker one. But she will make up for it in other ways, you will soon find your self taking pitty on her and passing her sneaky treats whilst the others aren't looking, that's what we do with our little Clover.

 

Good luck, try not to worry.

 

xx

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All perfectly normal ....and most of it will be bluff and grandstanding. It just looks worse than it is.

 

Could you give them something to peck at in the run to amuse them/

 

Have you got a cabbage or some broccoli left over that they could have?

 

It might divert them a bit.

 

Try not to worry.

Edited by Guest
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Maud used to bully shalott at first but it all settled eventually. It was rather touching the other day, I was worried about shalott as she wasn't looking right (turned out to be a soft egg on the way) anyway, I put her in a pet carrier in the conservatory for a bit and as I went to remove her from the run, Maud got all upset and pecked me. Maud is boss chook and shalott is bottom chook. She was trying to defend shalott which I thought was rather sweet. Maud, although she bosses the others around a bit, she looks out for them too :D

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I had the same when I introduced 2 new hens, it's not nice to watch, but I followed advice from here and put extra food stations in etc and now the pecking order is firmly established with the odd peck and chase but nothing major any more :) When you first see them going at each other with claws and hear the screams it's hard to believe they will ever settle down and be friends, but they do...........eventually.

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Just wondering - are bantams less aggressive when it comes to introductions? I've never seen anything worse than a bit of squawking, pecking and (non-injurious) feather-pulling with my current three. They are still quite competitive, though - there was mayhem this morning when Angelica found a worm and Pepper wanted it! :lol:

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we had a couple of weeks of this in August last year when we introduced our 2 white girls to the 2 original Pepperpots. It was horrible to watch but eventually settled down. We did have a skirmish the other day but it didn't last long and I think they were all wanting to lay at the same time and a bit of PMT had set in :lol:

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