Bully Chicken

[chickensinneed]

Hey yall,

I recently got a new white leghorn and introduced her to my other white leghorn, the new one is Opal, the old one is Crystal. Crystal has been pecking at Opal and chasing her, is she asserting dominance? I have seen her do it with my previous chicken Pearl but not to this extent. I know has to assert and show that she is the big mother but it really hurts seeing Opal all shy and not wanting to come out of the cage. Is there something I should do?Could Crystal kill Opal? Or should I just let this run its natural course?

 

[chickenquail]

Crystal would be the dominent one from what you have told me and she is just trying to show Opal that she is the boss of the flock. If Crystal is attacking her and Opal is bleeding confine them into two different cages near one another make sure that the cages are small and they cant move around much and put them next to each other and make sure they can see eachother. leave them in the cages for about half an our and put food and water in there and just let them talk and see eachother.

After about half an hour take them out and put them in a large pen where they can get away from each other and if Crystal starts to attack her very aggressevely repeat the small cage. If Crystal just pecks her not gently but like telling your child no then just leave them for a while.
Once they are happy scratching around with each other or they seem fine with each other put them in with the other hens and again if any of your other hens are agressevely attacking Opal repeat what you have just done and hopefully the result will be great and you will have a content chicken flock again.

This method usually works for me but if it doesn't I'm very sorry I couldn't help.

 

[chickensinneed]

Thankyou so much for your advice. It isn't an agressive way, she kind of grabs the feathers but doesnt pull them out, but pulls them enough to make Opal annoyed. I think it is just dominance and things should pan out pretty well in the end. Thankyou for your advice and I'll keep it in mind incase this happens again.