Pro - Does anyone else's nest boxes get soaked in rain?

[House MD 221B]

When chooks are sorting out the pecking order, I know not to get involved unless bloods being drawn, however I have a question that's been niggling at me...

 

When you have to get in between them and you have to remove one, do you:

 

a) Remove the Aggressor

 

b) Remove the subservient one

 

c) remove both and deal with individually.

 

The reason I ask, is if you take the agressor (usually head chicken) does it weaken their stance with the others, OR if you take the weaker one, does that affirm to the others it's weak and encourage more picking on it. Or is it better to remove both.

 

OR finally is it really irellevant and I'm putting to much thought into it? Would they still just sort it out when they came back regardless of intervention?

[lindafw]

my opinion ( do I know what I am talking about...not really) is that you remove the subservient one to give her a break.. the pecking order will sort itself eventually so you are just preventing bloodshed. I have never had to remove...I have a big garden with lots of space so just shoo off the older girls if they give the newbies a tough time..but my intros (except my polands) have been the ...bung them in together at night variety and with lots of space it has worked. The polands had an eglu of their own...them being so tiny and my others ( at the time ) being large fowl

[bottledcherryangel]

I take the opposite view and remove the aggressor. The idea being that after a good spell away from the others, she will have lost her place in the pecking order. It is always worth checking over the victim to see if she is being targeted because she is off color.

[Leicester_H]

I think the norm is to remove the bully - so she loses her place as top chook.

If you remove the bullied one, you will have to re-introduce her - which is a process that often leads to bullying anyway.

 

Drawing blood means that they have to be seperated - but I have seperated them before this stage sometimes - depends how miserable the bully is making the other(s) - we have them as pets - pets should be happy and feel safe.

 

Good Luck, H