Chicken bald back

[Justadmin]

Hiya,

 

Sorry, me again! So I was just out having a lovely time with the chickens (two gingernuts, Mary and Belina). We've only had them since Saturday. Belina is already the much tamer and friendlier of the two, she'll happily be stroked whilst she eats and she'll come and sit on our laps too.

 

Just now I actually had Mary on my lap and she was quite content for once, she sat quite happily as I stroked her. Then Belina comes strutting over, initially just having a look, then she lunged for Mary and ripped a feather out of her underskirt! Then another peck, and another to the body this time.

 

I started shouting "No!" and even gave Belina a push, but she seemed unphased by this. I tried to protect Mary as best I could, I wanted to stand with her but how I was kneeling I couldn't stand up.

 

Then once they were back together they seemed fine, until I saw Belina have another pop, attacking Mary around the wing.

 

What do you think this is? Was Belina jealous of me holding Mary and not her? Is this normal? Can I do anything to prevent it?

 

Thanks for your help as always

[Cat tails]

Belina sounds like being top chicken and may resent Mary be in a higher physical position (aka your lap) than lower ranking Mary. She will need to assert herself over Mary as to keep her position as top chicken.

Their way is by pecking at eachother to let the other know, they are still in charge.

 

Nothing really to do about this. In a pack of wolves, you'll always have the Omega dog, that is always the one getting picked on. Having clear roles is actually quite nice, as they'll squabble less.

[Hippie Chick]

I carry my middle ranking chicken, Clara, around quite a bit as she's being broody at the moment, plus she's cute and seems to enjoy relaxing and being stroked!

 

Brunhilde, the head chicken may very well want to do the same as yours when I have Clara but she's out of reach. I've had Brunhilde follow me round looking up at Clara and then trying to hop onto higher objects to get closer. I decided that she felt she should be carried around for a bit too so I swapped chickens for a bit.

 

Brunhilde seemed quite content after that. She isn't a chicken that really liked being picked up (a bit flappy and struggles a lot) but she's now decided that it's quite nice for short periods and even better if I sit on the step and she can sit on my knee. So a bit of a bonus there as it's made her a lot more cuddly and she now 'asks' to be picked up

 

So maybe swap chickens next time and see if Belina learns to enjoy the attention

 

Apart from that, I sometimes see a higher ranking chicken pull a feather out of another one to tell them off, especially when one wants the preferred dust bathing hollow in my lawn it's never a prolonged attack, just a quick peck and the feather is duly eaten as a prize! I think we worry more about it than the chickens do

[Justadmin]

Thanks for your replies.

 

They slept in different places last night, they'd had a domestic! This morning though they were quite content, I went in to do their chores and they both had a cuddle with me, I picked up Belina first and walked her about a bit, then I had Mary on my lap like the night before. Belina came up and gave us a look which was a bit like "Ermm what are you doing?" but then Mary got down and they didn't argue. So perhaps Belina was just casually reprimanding her last night?

 

I did read online that feather pecking and eating (she did eat at least one of the ones she pulled out, sorry, forgot to mention that before) can be because of a protein deficiency. So I scattered some dried mealworms across their run this morning to give them something to scratch at during the day.

 

I just hope it doesn't develop into anything seriously nasty. They're such lovely birds really, I just want them to get along and be happy, it's very difficult to watch them hurting each other.

 

Thanks.

[The Dogmother]

Sounds like it's just a social issue, but keep an eye on it as this can escalate quite quickly.