scared chicken

[mjwells]

i have 6 chickens, they were all raised together (10 months old now) but then within the past 2 weeks one of my reds started to pick on one of my leghorns, not sure if the leghorn started to molt or the red pulled here neck feathers out but I isolated the leghorn in my garage in a separate cage. Her feathers grew back but now she doesn't want to go back into the coop. each time i put her in there she tries to climb the gate and when i go into the coop she jumps on my back or shoulder. So i have been giving her time in the coop for a few hours during the day then return her to the garage. is this the right thing to do or am i going about this the wrong way? Also they chase her but i am seeing no plucked feathers or pecking wounds. She is also still laying eggs.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Have you tried removing the red one for a few days instead? How big is your coop? Are there places for more submissive birds to get up, under or behind?

 

[mjwells]

yes she has plenty of places to evade pursuit, and i check on her regularly and they won't chase her if they see me standing there. i will move the red tomorrow morning and try that. should i wait until the red goes for so she understands why i am removing her? (schickens are kinda smart)

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Removing the red should shake up the pecking order a bit, and give the leghorn some time to calm down hopefully. Otherwise you can try pinless peepers on the red hen. People seem to have success going that route too.

 

[DLA]

Leghorns are known to be very flighty and easily agitated. Some more than others. If she's still laying and blood isn't being drawn then she may just be acting really wild at any little thing. The other red chicken may not like that behavior. But I agree with the above that removing the red chicken to reset the pecking order may help. My grandfather and a few other farmers around used to raise hundreds of leghorns each and I've seen them literally flip out over things that other chicken breeds wouldn't even react to. Not trying to disparage the breed, they have a very good feed conversion ratio and lay a lot of eggs and some are fairly normal.

 

[ChookaPete]

Leghorns are known to be very flighty and easily agitated. Some more than others. If she's still laying and blood isn't being drawn then she may just be acting really wild at any little thing. The other red chicken may not like that behavior. But I agree with the above that removing the red chicken to reset the pecking order may help. My grandfather and a few other farmers around used to raise hundreds of leghorns each and I've seen them literally flip out over things that other chicken breeds wouldn't even react to. Not trying to disparage the breed, they have a very good feed conversion ratio and lay a lot of eggs and some are fairly normal.

Thanks for this info! My Leghorn pullet was getting bullied harshly over a couple of months ago, but I did and do wonder if she was making a huge fuss more than anything, and while that is not a reason to be bullied, I do wonder if it aggravated the bully.

My Leghorn would make an awful "Buh-GAAAHHH-bu-GAAAHHH! bup-bup...Buh-GAAAHHH-bu-GAAAHHH! bup-bup...Buh-GAAAHHH-bu-GAAAHHH! bup-bup..." , sound, constantly, after something startled her. I wondered if because she was already on tenterhooks from being stalked down and stood on by the bully, but even if I just stood there ten metres away from her, she'd make this noise. It was very unsettling...


I tried isolating the bully but I had her out of sight of the leghorn, so it was not effective. It did though allow my leghorn some peace to recover for a bit. However I later caught the bully in the act and disciplined her on the spot (she ran off sulking!), and that fixed the problem. Both chooks now forage and sit together nicely.


In future though I will build a "Bully Box" isolation area where she and the victim can see each other, to make the process effective.

 

[DLA]

I'm glad it's fixed! I have one of my newer batch of chickens I got (they're 14 weeks now) that is kind of like that. She's an easter egger but I suspect from her build and she's lighter in color that she has some leghorn in her breeding somewhere because she is flighty and super noisy making that same noise you described above at every little thing. I ended up with an unplanned rooster (also an easter egger) and he's hitting his puberty so he gets her going regularly. I built a bully box for him but he's a little on the smaller side and the bigger girls (barred rock and silver laced wyandotte) are teaching him manners so I've only had to use it twice.