Culling friendly hens for bullying and no longer producing eggs

[IdyllwildAcres]

I have never regretted culling a bully. In my experience the flock is much calmer for a good while after.
Lately I am very quick to cull, chicken math is real and I want more chicks so someone has to go so when the chickens make the decision easier all the better.

 

[Twilia]

I have a speckled hen and a rhode island red hen that are the friendliest towards me, they run up to me to say "hello", but they are terrible with my other hens. Besides them I have a brahma hen I bought, a silkie pair I bought, and all of my other hens are either pure silkie or mixes that I did not incubate, but let my 'mother silkie' brood over and raise. The brahma even helped raise one batch too after they hatched. They are not as people friendly.

Traits the bullies have:

• If I bring out scraps they get first picks and drive the others away
• They peck at other hens near the feed source
• I've watched my camera at night and they will peck at the smaller hens while they try to sleep, demanding a foot of space around them forcing other hens to the far corners or the nesting boxes
• I have a remote dispenser system for cracked corn, they will get first dibs while the other hens barely get anything
• Just pecking at a hen for being in close proximity

On top of these behaviors I haven't seen an egg from the speckled hen in over a year, and from the rhode island red its probably been 8 months. And yet, they demand to get either first dibs on the food or all of the food.

The only reason why I kept them around was because they were incredibly friendly with me, but seeing how they probably cause stress amongst the flock, I think I should cull them both.

This wouldn't be my first time. I had another friendly speckled hen who was a sweetheart and never bullied but somehow she got a bad leg, was always limping and would never leave the coop despite having space to free range, scratch at dirt, eat bugs... etc. I felt bad for her and I also factored in that her diet was 100% food I provided as opposed to foraging and she didn't produce eggs so I ate her. Do you recommend I do the same to these bully hens? I see my silkies peck at each other too but its not as violent or dominant, maybe because they are much closer in size.

Try rehoming, not killing. Bully behavior is natural in a hierarchy.
Your birds could be stressed or bored.
Try the feeder advice or add boredom busters.

 

[Mrs. K]

Personally I would let them go, I find that old birds do get crabby and mean. In a small flock, removing unproductive birds gives you room for chicks. I have three that should be culled if I am going to hatch.