Single hen

[vetty82]

Hi

 

My second day as a chicken owner and I'm a bit worried!

 

One of the hens seems to keep 'shouting' and snapping at the other hens!! She looks like a bit of a bully.

 

When I went out earlier she was having a go at a couple of them. Previous to this I found three inside the cube in the middle of the day.

 

Should I worry or is it a bit of shuffling about of the pecking order?

 

xx

[Egluntyne]

It is dominance and pecking order stuff.

 

Not easy to watch, but so long as she doesn't injure them, I'd leave them to it.

 

An icy blast with a hose pipe might startle her out of it.

 

If you make sure there are plenty of food stations out (min 3) then she won't be able to prevent them from eating.

[vetty82]

We have a big grub feeder and a super glug, but nothing else.

 

They have a broccoli hanging in their run but so far none of them have figured out what to do with it!!

[tania]

hi there. We've only had ours for a week so am very new at this as well. I, too, was worried as mine spent much of the first 4-5 days in the Eglu but are now out in the run much more. Over the last few days they have been very keen to get out and free range and are getting much more adventurous. Having posted a similar query myself it seems this is normal behaviour at the begining. The advice from the others on the forum is fantastic.

[Cooks]

We have a big grub feeder and a super glug, but nothing else.

 

They have a broccoli hanging in their run but so far none of them have figured out what to do with it!!

like Egluntine says, it will help if you add some additional feeding stations, old bowls will do if you have nothing else.

[scrambledhead]

We 've had our ex bats for about 10 days and during the first week there was much pecking, mainly of Jerry who is nearly bald as it is! But they have now settled down and queue up in a very ladylike fashion at the Grub in the morning

 

As long as they are all getting access to food/water am told that sorting out the pecking order is the norm.

[mostin]

It should settle down soon, but a egluntine says, a blast in the face with water helps settle things. I found plant/hair sparyers were good, my OH nick-named me John Wayne I got so good at blasting the right hen in the face if she was misbehaving .

[mags]

so far touch wood not too much pecking my smallest bird gets pecked a bit but I expected that

 

water spay a good idea

 

off to find water pistol LOL

 

mags