3yo Sisters Fighting in Coop

[bacibeau]

Hello everyone!

I have had my four chickens for the past three years and they have all gotten along fine with no fights or anything. Recently, I noticed that two of the four have been sleeping inside of the nesting boxes instead of on the roost. When I went to push them out of the boxes and convince them to jump up, the other two on the roost started pecking them and forcing them to jump down. I'm letting them stay in the boxes tonight but I'm not sure why the other two are pecking them. They've always slept together on the roosts and all of them seem pretty healthy from the outside.

I'm wondering if maybe it's because both roosts are the same height? We started out with it like that and there were never any problems so we never moved one lower than the other. Is this behavior something to be concerned about? What do y'all think the reason is?

Thanks!

Here is a video (this is on the mellower side of what they do)
https://my.arlo.com/#/viewShared/8F55424D8E7E885B_202411

 

[Shadrach]

I'm wondering if maybe it's because both roosts are the same height?

It's worth trying to space the roost bars so that once a hen is on one and wants to peck a hen on another, she has to get off the roost bar she's on; opposite sides of the coop has worked for me.
This is a small coop but it shows what I mean.

Another possible solution may be to fix a divider on one or both of the roost bars. I did this in the coop above when the white hen who is some months senior to the two pullets started shuffling along the roost bar and pecking the pullets until they got off.

Is this behavior something to be concerned about? What do y'all think the reason is?

Who roosts where and when in the world of chickens is apparently very important in establishing seniority. It tends to lead to coop scrums. There are observable reasons for some of these scrums, for example when there is a wide range of ages in the group. Sometimes they just don't get on. If you have two being picked on that is better than just one in my experience.
We the keepers have to make a judgement on whether to interfere directly or let them work it out for themselves.
If they are ripping off wattles and tearing up combs then direct action on the part of the keeper is needed. If they are just pecking and bullyiing then I let them get on with it, hard though it may be to watch.