Sooo much pooping

[Saltpeppersugar]

I got my three hens last saturday. They seemed to settle fairly quickly and have come in/out of the coop regularly since Monday. I know it's still early days, but I was wondering how long it takes before pecking order is established. I have three leghorns, two White and one brown. They are all from the same farm, so used to being together. The brown seems to be the boss and gets along well with both two others. But the two whites are not settled yet. One of them keeps chasing the other, even to the event that whenever the second comes outof the copp, the first chases her back in. Instead of things settling more, it seems to get worse. I'm worried the second mightnot get enough food/drink. She dorsmanage to stay outside occasionally and eats some. Any thoughts much appreciated.

[Lavenders_Blue]

It's still early days so don't panic too much yet! Even though your chickens knew each other before, the move away from the other chickens they lived with and a new home will mean they want to re establish the pecking order. It's best to let them get on with it as long as they aren't drawing blood.

If you are worried about one being denied food/water, could you put out more feeding stations? Anything would do as a temporary measure if you don't have spare feeders and drinkers. Hopefully this will help as the more food and water stations there are, the more difficult it is for the others to guard them all at once!

 

You could also try squirting the offender with a water pistol or spray bottle when she hassles the other chickens. She will soon get the message

[Saltpeppersugar]

Thanks. I will try the extra feeder

[Guest]

Hi

I had this problem with my 3 light sussex bantam hens.

Unfortunatley mine plucked all the feather sout the other 2's necks so i had to rehome.

Ofcourse this is a last resort but if nothing else works i would strongly suggest that rehoming is done i know it sounds bad but my 2 hens are now perfectly fine and happy and they have their black collars growing back.

[Guest]

Hi

I had this problem with my 3 light sussex bantam hens.

Unfortunatley mine plucked all the feather sout the other 2's necks so i had to rehome.

Ofcourse this is a last resort but if nothing else works i would strongly suggest that rehoming is done i know it sounds bad but my 2 hens are now perfectly fine and happy and they have their black collars growing back.

[Saltpeppersugar]

Thanks, I will keep it in mind if this continous too long and doesn't settle. It's still early though and I'm hoping it will get better. Also I haven't let them out of the run yet, because I haven't gotten the courage to clip the wings yet and they could fly away. I need ti make sure that they know where home is, because even after clipping leghorns apparently are still good flyers. Hopefully once I can let them free range a bit, things will also get better if it hasn't already.

[Guest]

They might just be bored aswell. With the wing clipping I only did it once because I got paranoid but so long as your hens are happy they shouldnt try to escape. I live with 5ft fences around and my girls can easily clear it as the have shown with their jumping but have never tried to get out.

[Eggasperated]

Hi

I had this problem with my 3 light sussex bantam hens.

Unfortunatley mine plucked all the feather sout the other 2's necks so i had to rehome.

Ofcourse this is a last resort but if nothing else works i would strongly suggest that rehoming is done i know it sounds bad but my 2 hens are now perfectly fine and happy and they have their black collars growing back.

 

How did you find someone who would take the feather plucker? I've got one but I can't imagine anyone wanting to take her on.

[Guest]

How did you find someone who would take the feather plucker? I've got one but I can't imagine anyone wanting to take her on.

I rang around my friends and someones dad was a breed of all the sussex chickens and he had just lost his breed light susex bantam hen and she has been there a week and been seen mating witht the cock

[Saltpeppersugar]

my friend has a few leghorns, and although they come back at night, they occasionally roam the neighbourhood. She lives quite rural, so it's fine. We live near busy streets...

[Redwing]

Hi

I had this problem with my 3 light sussex bantam hens.

Unfortunatley mine plucked all the feather sout the other 2's necks so i had to rehome.

Ofcourse this is a last resort but if nothing else works i would strongly suggest that rehoming is done i know it sounds bad but my 2 hens are now perfectly fine and happy and they have their black collars growing back.

 

How did you find someone who would take the feather plucker? I've got one but I can't imagine anyone wanting to take her on.

 

I rehomed one to a bigger flock - your best bet is to try farms, city farms etc.. - you need someone who has a big scale operation

[Eggasperated]

Ok thanks, I did ask someone with a lot of hens but he wasn't keen on taking on just one. I didn't think of farms or city farms, I'll give that a go if I feel I really can't live with her anymore.

[chickyhazel]

Squirting offenders with a sprayer is what we do. We have a chicken who is still bullied on a small scale by all the others, but it isn't serious and as we have 2 food and water containers she can still get food and water.