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Chicken politics?

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I have had my girls for just a week now, but already fallen in love with their little characters.

These are my first ever chickens and I'm curious about where you draw the line at normal chicken politics and start talking about bullying.

 

I let my three 3 month old New Hamphire Bantams out in the garden for a bit this afternoon. They haven't gone exploring much, but I have observed some interesting behaviour.

It seems like two ladies are squabbling a bit. Chasing after eachother, lunging and raising themselves up as tall as a little bantam can be.

They still very happily go into the Eglu Go Up together and go to sleep all squeaking.

 

Are these ladies just figuring out the pecking order? And when should I get worried?

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They will be sorting out a pecking order. Just make sure two aren't bullying one, and it may be an idea to have extra feed and drink stations to stop the bully hogging the food and drink.

 

Only worry if you can see the bullied one isn't eating or of blood is drawn.

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They're three months old and was told that they are hens... :shock:

I'm as sure as I can be anyway. :eh:

 

I'm just going to keep my eye on it and look out for possible bloodshed... Let's hope it won't get that far.

There is one hen, that doesn't eat out of the grubthingy much and try to crawl underneath the other two and pick up the spilled bits. But she is a bit weird anyway. Will try to crawl underneath the other two to sleep and roost as well and squeaks continuously.... Like she is still a tiny chick. Hope she will grow out of it. And this one doesn't seem to participate in the pecking order business. Will just follow the other two around, squeaking.

 

I'm not a hundred percent sure about these observations. The girls look incredibly alike and have no rings... Going to buy some tomorrow, because this is too confusing.

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I've had trouble with my girls eating out of the grubs in the past. I don't use them anymore. I use gravity feeders. I zoomed in on your photo and they all look like hens to me. Fingers crossed :D

 

They're lovely little birds. I'm sure they'll settle soon :D

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Oh good! Hens only! I bought them at a large pet store that mainly sells poultry and supplies. So I guess those people know what they are doing, but there is always this gnawing feeling...

 

Thanks for the advice though. At least I know what I need to look out for. The ladies are now happily sharing a piece of broccoli.

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Wyandottes are reliably sexed at 10 weeks or less Cat Tails. Leghorns at 4 weeks. So I would expect the shop is right.

 

The behaviour is what I term 'play fighting'. It's a pecking order issue. it can appear quite aggressive between two hens evenly matched and may resume when they moult as that weakens the birds. It's nothing to worry about with hens (cockerels are very different) in my experience as I have never seen serious blood drawn, perhaps a peck on the comb. I have seen a new hen defeat 6 challengers in a row though (we pulled her out to recover her strength) and ultimately she beat all 12 to assume the top spot.

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After some extensive searching, I finally found an online shop selling single leg rings in stead of 25 at a time. Delivery fee was a bit steep for an order of 1 euro... But my lovely ladies are now showing off their fashionable leg rings and prancing through the garden for all to see. (Makes it easy to forget the complete indignation in their little beady eyes, when I plucked them out of the Go to put the rings on.)

 

This means I now know for sure who are squabling for topchick. Cinnamon (yellow ring) and Ginger (fluorescent pink ring) are trying to be alpha hen, although I think Cinnamon is going to win. She is rather a bossy hen. Little Nutmeg (purple ring) keeps her beak out of this business and just stuffs it a bit more with some feed. She is a simple but dilligent chicken, who's job in life is to eat, find food, squeak a bit at the running ladies and stuff her beak some more.

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