BEllis Posted June 4, 2015 Share Posted June 4, 2015 I have 5 old hens and introduced 4 new gals. As I thought nesting box in eglu would be crowded as 4 laying I kept the transition henhouse nest box open in the morning for the new gals to go in. What my old gals are doing (2 in particular) are they will go into the house before my new gals get in and sit there and as soon as my new hens enter they chase them out. It means I have to stand there every morning at 8am stopping those two from getting in they will even try to push past me to do so. I am not sure how to deal with it. I have tried putting new gals into the eglu nest box to reclaim the eglu for new gals but they always jump out. The bullying has continued for about 3 months. I keep separate food and water areas all over my garden so the new gals are not bullied too much. They are fine though and coping but I am worried they are preventing the new gals from laying their eggs. I have not seen this behaviour before in hens and I have kept hens for a long time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beantree Posted June 5, 2015 Share Posted June 5, 2015 They are just protecting their territory I think and it will be very difficult to stop that. You will need to provide different nest boxes for the new girls. We have a similar problem, so the pullets were given a completely separate coop and run. Even so the hens tried to bully them out of those nest boxes so we have to lock them in to lay to keep the others out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mullethunter Posted June 5, 2015 Share Posted June 5, 2015 The Wyandottes do this to the Pekins, so often when we're in we'll shut the Wyandottes out to give the Pekins a chance r lay in peace. However when we're not here the eggs always all end up in the nestbox (apart from one of Shelley's which was in the run) so they must manage somehow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BEllis Posted June 7, 2015 Author Share Posted June 7, 2015 Thankyou for your responses. I have taken to locking up the two culprits who do this. I put them in the eglu run and shut the door (they are free range in my garden all the time) for at least half an hour first thing. So getting them in chicken prison at least gives one of the new gals the chance to lay for a while. But their behaviour seems to have stopped the egg laying in the two others. I was getting 4 eggs a day from new gals then it went to 3 (a poorly hen who is now recovered stopped) and now I get one if I am lucky. The new gals rush to their nest box first thing whereas my older gals lay later. I worried that forcing them to stop laying would harm them physically, I don't know if that is true or not. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimnpaula Posted June 7, 2015 Share Posted June 7, 2015 Perhaps a 3rd neutral laying area would help? Something like a small cat carrier would do, that way no-one 'owns' it, and it makes it more difficult to guard the nest as there are more of them - like you put out more feeders & drinkers so everyone gets a chance? I don't know if that would work but I seem to remember reading about a ratio of 3 birds per nesting area. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
