Why do chickens get bullied?
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- Опубліковано 6 сер 2024
- It is always important to remember that chickens are animals and not humans. They're going to behave differently than humans because they don't have a highly developed frontal lobe. Science. This stuff happens in nature. As much as we want to anthropomorphize ( assign human features to an animal) they are still animals and they are going to behave as animals do.
Chickens establish a pecking order to sort out who is the boss and who is the lacky. The bird on the bottom of the order is going to get picked on.
While this is normal there are things you can do to mitigate the effects or distract the chickens from pecking each other. This comes in the form of being a good farmer or homesteader.
- Give the birds plenty of space
- Rotate the birds on grass so they are not living on a burnt out lunar surface
- Always keep them with plenty of fresh feed and water
- Give them treats or games to play as discussed in the video
I do this stuff at a scale of 300 chickens and it is really rare that I have a bird that is really beat up, hen-pecked a little at times, but not to the point of blood. That comes from good chicken keeping. At the end of the day, think about what the chickens' needs are and meet them. If they're happy they won't fight as much.
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thanks for putting the experts
on .
I entertain my chickens by telling them why did the chicken cross the road jokes
We had one hen that was bullying the others. One day I watched her pulling feather out of another. It just stood there and took it, and that made me a little angry (not sure why). So I entered the pen and established myself as the dominate chicken. She never plucked another feather.
Tom Angle I'm telling you, being a dominant force helps me keep my ROOSTER from trying to chase me, or peck at my feet. Lol
I grab him up and kiss his comb and tell him how naughty he is, and he straightens up. Lol he hasn't even got his Spurs yet. He'd about 5 months old and all my hens his age and under are laying ( it's Dec17th, and they started to lay at exactly Thanksgiving. One by one. I get 6 eggs a day already out of 7 hens,! 😃
Tom Angle , 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
Should have chopped its head off
It's the chicken that's possessed it needs be cleansed.
i tried that with mine and right after i let it up she came over to peck me...so I did it again and she came at me again....she was mad lol
We put peas and corn into an ice cream bucket and froze it. We were doing this in the summer time so they would get something to play with and it was cooling them down.
Farmlife Cool Idea!
@@girld1ck oh hi Taehyung tf
It's winter time, so we have lots of snow and chickens don't like snow. We have a 10x10 outside chicken run for the winter and it is covered, with walls on 3 sides. The ground is dirt so I cover it with hay and 3 times a day I come out and throw in some chicken scratch, black oil sunflower seeds or maybe diced celery or something for them to scratch around in the hay to find the food. They love it and it keeps them busy.
+Chuck Wingenbach You're a dedicated guy Chuck, I like that.
I was integrating 2 of my hens with the 4 older ones. The one hen, Betty, goes in shock. The 4 hover over her and she just lays there. She does not stand up for herself. They're fine free ranging together but not otherwise. After trying on numerous occasions I decided to keep the 2 seperate. I can only keep them occupied with toys for so long.
Thank you I have a chicken who is in a bad way . I am really worried . Thinking I should make a separate place for her.
There is a spray you can buy I forget the name it's something like Stop Peck. It stinks and deters hens from pecking the one that's sprayed because they hate the taste.
I let them free range as much as possible. They seem to really THRIVE and produce lots of eggs after a good day of free ranging.
I let my chickens outside all day with a dog making sure no cat or hawk gets them and my dog will dig for them to eat the bugs that come out if I don't let them out than they are all be yelling and cry for me to let them out
Wow, your dog seems incredibly well trained to do that for you.
My pit bulls protect my chickens.
Starting my 1st flock in the next couple weeks... Thank you for all the information. Best I've found on UA-cam!
+Lauren Ashford Glad I could help Lauren. If you have questions let me know I'll make more videos. If you're raising laying hens try Justin Rhodes channel too. He's pretty good and has a great spirit.
Great information and good questions too, thank you.
frozen corn on the cob you can buy a big bag at Walmart cheap throw a few in the run and watch the fun
Not a bad idea.
love hearing from these experts. very down to earth ppl you have found
I have four HyLine chickens that are almost a year old, that free-range in my backyard (82 square metres). One of them (Clover, slightly smaller than the rest) is constantly picked on by the 'bully' chicken, who always chases Clover away from the feeder boxes, water bowls, and any food I throw to them. I try spreading the food out so there is plenty to share, but the bully chicken is greedy and always lashes out at Clover. She seems anxious around that bully. Clover even started flying over the fence to the patio to lay her eggs on a chair, then one day stayed on the chair when she went broody (only flew back to the yard to eat and drink, but was constantly hounded by the bully). I was given some fertilised eggs and put them under Clover. One of them hatched, so Clover became a surrogate mother to Chamomile, a cross-bred Leghorn. I put Clover and Chamomile into a separate coop in the corner of the yard for month, until a storm broke the coop's fence and they got out (they still go back to the smaller coop to roost). They seem to enjoy grazing across the whole yard and mingling with the rest of the chooks, but are now both targeted by the bully. What do I do about the bully?
I hang a head of cabbage .they love it. I also toss scratch feed around...not every day...same with the cabbage. I dice up apples for them in the mornings and toss them around and that keeps them busy for a while. We definitely have a packing order but I try to minimize it as much as I can. It took weeks as they were determined to kill one of my smallest hens but I got it stopped with perseverance..it meant going out every day and then in the evening at roosting time as they were bullying her so badly she would get left outside and not be able to go in the coop and roost. I would sit with her in the coop until it got dark and then put he on the roost next to a chicken that was least likely to be the most brutal. It took two months but by golly they quit trying to hurt her and now she gets on the roost herself and will now defend herself. She is now my little buddy. They know when you try and help them.
I admire that dedication !
Thank you for the information
Thank you guys for doing this!!
I just made some seed blocks so I will find out soon if it helps the one hen who is the brunt of the abuse. Thanks for the info about keeping them occupied!
You mentioned Cd's. A Cd is extremely hard to break, try it sometime. I have Cd's tied to my chickens run in several place to help keep hawks away. They see their reflection and fly away, it has helped a lot. To keep chickens busy we fill are bird feeders full of organic grains the chickens like. As the wild birds to come in to feeder they kick feed out of feeder and the chicken can clean up from there. It's fun to watch them waiting for wild birds to come in. We have several feeders setup around the yard like this. We also offer vegetable from the garden in different places around the yard during the summer. It's like hide and seek but they look for the food then hide to eat it all!
I must say I think free ranging and I mean free of chickens runs completely (true free ranging) helps a lot. They have so much to do when they can run and forage for food. I noticed a lot more bullying when they are cooped up.
Nice video!
Sorry I disagree about the wild bird feeders .. Your just inviting diseases from wild birds .. and there pooping where your birds are eating .. might be fun to watch, but very bad idea.
I gather the wild bird poo and put it on my sugar cookies as icing... the neighborhood kids love them and so do their parents...
@@zekethefishgeek8690 HAAAAAA haaa haaaaa!!!!! This gave me a chuckle. Thank you for the humor :)
Great info and wonderful comments below! Thank you!
Anything that will help satiate their hard wired desires to spend most of the waking hours foraging is a good distraction. That really goes for any animals - in their natural habitats, they spend most of their time looking for food. When we domesticate anything, the first thing we do is put a bowl of food within easy reach. So they get their fill in ten minutes and now what to do with the rest of the day?
Our parrots like to pitch food out of their bowls to they can have a reason to climb around the cages and pretend to forage for it later, which is interesting. Our chickens LOVE having bales of straw to scratch, climb, eat and generally mess with. I also broadcast a few handfuls of scratch feed or other junk food into the run, on and around the bales to give them something to hunt for. Keeps 'em occupied for an hour or two.
So far this winter compared to last the violence level is WAY down. Doubling the enclosed run space, the straw bales and scratch hunting made a big difference.
Very helpful👍🏻
I have 1 rooster and 6 hens. The rooster keeps picking on the same hen all the time. What should I do? I’m about to make chicken soup tomorrow.
Make soup
Removing the eggs early on and then letting mine go outside takes care of most of the issues. I have a red light on instead of the white which keeps things dim. I keep the feed and water in the coop as to give them a need to travel between the run/outside which occupies them. I have 30 girls in a 10X10 shed. The run is 10x10 enclosed with plastic roof and I have 300 feet of electric fence for an outdoor run plus I let them out on our propriety as well. Keeps things busy :)
+Nick Smith Thanks for that stats Nick, that's great!
Very helpful video.
Great video!
+Pavel Glazkov Thank you
So chickens are ADHD. Short attention spans. LOL What they need is television. Smile!
+Ciecie Newson Or Angry Birds on an iPhone?
I have done the cabbage thing and it does work. Also have plastic balls with food in them they can knock around (little holes let the food out).One thing I found interesting was when we bought three pairs of different chickens. We brought them home and the pairs stayed together. How did they know?
i take my bully out and put in confinement for about a week, that usually works.
Putting the bully inconfinement is a good idea. Thanks fir the idea. Why should the nice chickens be taken out of the pen?
I have the boss of the bullys but they became a gang of 4 but theres the boss i dont know if i should confind the 4 of them
I have a chicken swing I have for them and a seed block for them to pack at and a sand box for them to take baths in but still sometimes my trixie gets picked on.
The Chicken Doctor! Good to hear this.
I was wondering what is it about that particular chicken to end up on the bottom. My husband thinks it's the size of the chicken. the smaller ones. Didnt know that about the nest. The one at the bottom lays her eggs in the yard. 3 nests, 4 chickens.
Of course they like blood, they're velociraptors!
I've had up to 30 chickens at a time--almost all came to me as adults that were being given away. In the quarter century I've been keeping chickens, I've never seen bullying. If one of the chickens get an injury, than I do have to separate that chicken until their injury heals. My chickens free range 3 days per week and they have a lot of space in the coop.
My rooster seems to be picking on one chicken. Just wants to chew her head up, but not trying to mount her at the same time I separated her but once I put her back, he does it again.
I have one lady that just got beat up all day so I hang cucumbers and zucchini in the pen as well as let them out on my days off.. I can't let them roam due to the hawks and alley cats... But over all Missy has had to learn her place and she is doing well.
OMG THE THUMBNAIL IS THE SAME THING THAT HAPPENED TO MY BABY CHICKEN BECUASE MY OTHER TWO BABY CHICKENS HURT MY BABY CHICKEN I WAS CRYING SO MUCH 😔💞
I had an issue because my first chickens were a 'gang' of male Austrolorps. When I added Cornish Hens, Bard Rocks and female Austrolorps, the boys were aggressive and domineering, but not violent. If some of the boys got too aggressive, the ol' .22LR remedied the situation (I'm always in need of cat food). I've had 300-400 chickens but not had any issues with violence or drawing blood. The all run a 5-6 acre area so they all have space. Sometimes they'll vie for the shaded, cool areas in summer but that's about it. When processing birds I'll find marks, wounds and missing feathers due to rough sex. But the chickens, whatever breed and ducks seem to enjoy each others company.
Thanks for your video. I want to ask you a question. I have 1080 chicks 80 my poultry house and they 21 days old they are fighting bloody each other. Please can you tell me what is going on with my chicks. plea. help me
I try to make as few square corners as I canso no one can get cornered .
All of the above plus cat/puppy food for more protein. I also spray “BlueKote on vent area or anywhere there are raw areas due to pecking so they don’t see “meat.”. Also where feathers are coming in because they are dark and look like bugs to other hens. My horses share alfalfa with my hens... increases calcium for them. Good luck. It’s brutal in the hen house sometimes!!
We have invasive salt cedar trees so they just climb them and scratch around them.
We got 1 checken that's a d bag because she's the biggest in every way but she thinks everything is hers so the other start fighting with her sometimes.
I give mine a mirror with some bells & tassels on they look looking at themselves there basically budgie/parrot ones
TOYS for chickens?? LOL Surely you jest!
OK, OK...we've used the head of cabbage trick (screw a small lag bolt through the core) and it works! We only had three hens at that time, but one was clearly the bottom of the pecking order!
A couple of my chickens like to play with cat toys. They will push a jingle ball all around with their beaks and feet.
I have hung a cabbage and it worked well.
I believe that the limit of the pecking order is right about,20. Last flock we had about 48 (of various breeds) and I noticed they split off during the day in 2 to 3 separate groups. At night they would bunch up 3 different groups. If a bird was getting beat up, we would isolate her until she was healed up. We had 1 silkee rooster who was the culprit in beating up large Rhode Island Red hens. We had to "jail" him because he would just go around and draw blood on numerous hens in all the groups. Has anyone else had this experience?
Dear I have aseel breed chickens they are 6 weeks old but they are deadly and won't step back from fighting what should I do with this breed
I have a mix of 12 baby chicks. the runt is picking on all of the rest, picking them in the face. Why is it doing this?
well either give them plenty space or you could just place them w other groups of hens in ah pen
I play with them by getting so greens or so an let the chase me, so it's like tag.
I have problems with pecking order on the roost bar.. 😢
My chickens are bullieing each other... They are all female, so. Im nursing her back to health and she will stay seperate from all of them. She was getting picked on so shes currently trying to walk. She had food and water kept away from her for two days. She needed water...
Im Edgy But Im Fine. Figure out which hen(s) are the bullies and eat them, then replace them with more chickens that aren’t. It’s called culling your flock. You don’t want bullies, lazy layers, or egg eaters. All of those get culled on my place. My birds have a 25X100 wood chip run that gets sun and shade, and they get corn, oats, black sunflower seed, and layer pellet mixed with DE plus scraps, so they’re pretty happy chickens generally.
I give my chickens a large run, plus they go out to free range in the main yard most afternoons. Small runs lead to bored chickens and bored is never good.
Right now I have 4 birds living in my house... I'm getting some toys out there!
I have 2 Cinnamon Queens who were just mean. No peck order, just mean. I employed Pinless Peepers, and immediately the aggression stopped. I left them on for the recommended 2 weeks. When I took them off, which was hard for the birds, I saw that they had pressure wounds on either side of their beaks. I don't think I'll use them for that long should I need to use them again. They seemed to work right away, and now my flock is doing well, so they have their purpose, but not to be left on for too long.
I heard chickens like shells like on the beach little shells like that for protien I think
i have all buff orpingtons and 1 barred rock a friend gave me, they got along for several months then they started pecking the barred rock hen lol i would get in and follow the barred rock around and when they tried to peck her id slap the other chickens lol and give her a special box, after about a week they stopped
Brian Rivera I love this, I love you
Wait, what? Slap a chicken? Kinda mean don't you think? I mean when my Rooster is acting cheeky to me , I grab him by his tail feathers and pick him up and pet him and rub his comb and tell him what a bad boy he is. Lol seems to work for a while. He knows I'm boss. My girls so far are mellow. I think the idea of entertaining them would work much better then a chicken slap. Lol
Thanks I have a bunch of chickens I raised and one that I got at a slaughter house so it’s scared of people and it gets bullied bad
💔
Cannot hear low noise
What if you are trying to add a new hen to a flock? Everyone picks on her, should you just let them sort it out? What if they are very very mean (like picking at her feathers till she bleeds)?
+Mochi Chan Introduce her at night when everyone is sleeping. If they're pecking her real bad put pine tar on the area where she's getting pecked. Chickens don't like it so she won't get pecked as much, it's natural so it's not going to hurt her, and it will give her a chance to heal. If she's bleeding take her out of there until she has the chance to heal. Once the chickens see blood they're going to go after her worse.
Okay thank you so much for the quick reply.
But the hens that’s fighting the others is the highest ranking what do I do then
I have 11 chickens and one chicken was always plucked, little by little. Today I went to go give them water and the chicken getting plucked was dead! Her flesh was showing, her neck was cracked, and her back was bleeding! Now I only have 10 chickens......😭
I'm so sorry. Nature is cruel sometimes
Great video! I have raised chickens for many years on and off. I currently raise Light and Coronation Sussex. I have a hen that the others will allow to roost with them at night, however, they will not allow her into the outdoor area. She spends her day in the nesting box. Luckily, while the others are out she has access to food and water. Usually I see the opposite where they will not allow them to roost with the higher pecking order. Any ideas? Suggestions on how to divert the behavior?
Hello John,
The chickens are in agony many of them psychotic because they are confined in such a small space and that's why the chickens peck other chickens to death. People are the very same.
Peter Nolan. Ph.D.(physics). Dublin. Ireland.
Peter Nolan is your PhD in human or chicken psychology?
Many people say each chicken should have 4 sq ft of space in the coop if they go out into a large run/free range every day. When confined like these chickens, I've heard as much as 8 sq ft per chicken.
The chickens in this video don't look like they're even getting 4 sq ft each, so I would say your statement is accurate.
Happy chickens don't kill each other, and anything that takes their mind off of their lack of space is only a temporary solution.
My chickens will be 3 in April. They have an indoor run, an outdoor run and I walk them once or twice a day for an hour usually (depending on the weather). In the winter we snow blow or shovel paths for them so they have grass to walk on and eat. I sit with them and they take turns resting on my legs and lap. Pretty sweet for them I would say yet recently things have gone wrong and one of the more dominant ones is getting picked on even by my sweetest chicken. I’m at a loss as to why this happened but she is scared and not loving life. I have her separated at the moment but she isn’t able to roam about normally. I don’t think space is an issue or lack of entertainment. I move stuff around and add or subtract stuff. I’m really sad over this. Any further advice?
great ideas in here love this... I am for letting the free range as much as possible but chickens are mean I have had two cannibals had to get rid of ... didn't matter if they were inside or outside they were determined. never thought about the hay and the toys ... had one egg eater who was so determined she tore up the nests a dozen times a day constantly looking for eggs to eat. She made great dumplins.
Shiral Boone I guess so far I'm blessed. I have 8 chickens. Started with two, then added 4 more, then rescued 2 more. All but one are hens. They ran in three groups for a while. But I free range in a modest sized back yard.( Large enough to have a large swing set with a small trampoline and a burn pile, Sand box and a lot of places to run around, and a mini barn converted to chicken coop) maybe with all the stuff to play in, is the reason they leave one another alone. These days they stick together, but I can still see the first two always are by one another's side. Same with the next four, and the two I rescued. So cute though.
I HATE CHICKENS including my favourite one...
My European quail Albert got out yesterday and got in the chicken pen,
He was in the corner in the cage with shock, I saw his scalp all red but his eyes are fine
Two days and he stands still and sleeps and when I pet him he wakes up and move to an other spot 😭
My poor hen is so beat up up from the others It breaks my heart
One of our 6 got beat up really bad. I’m hoping it survives the night. It has been separated.
Did he survive?
@@cafedunier Yeah! It survived! Unfortunaly it's no longer alive, but we made a seperate coop for it and it survived the injuries and made a full recovery!
A flock block and plenty of food.We'll see how that works. Ive been told to separate them and re_introduce them in a week.If that doesnt work, Im trimming their. Beaks.Poor rooster only has 2 tail feathers left from 1 night with new hens.Has anyone else heard that rhode island reds are notorious for cannibalism? I would never have bought them had I known.
Is there really a chicken doctor?!
Here's a video I did today where my one amerucauna is getting bullied all a sudden. It's so weird! ua-cam.com/video/ldie15hqJLM/v-deo.html
lol coke can with rocks inside. sounds so silly. I just move my chickens often and give em what seems to be enough space.
This is why you shouldn't feel sorry for eating them. I don't hate them though
is the stress of being confined....let them out to run and forage, happy hens better eggs!
+Salto DelPuma In the summer they are moved constantly and have a lot of room, in the winter they have way more room then they need. Confinement can be stressful if the space is too small for sure. You just have to make sure the area for them is big enough and they have toys to play with.
Baby chicks shouldn’t free range.
I'm watching this and fried chicken ad came out
Watch them and keep them separated group wise. From color and age group. Not to many bigger ones with the little ones.
Whos the one controlling them ?
We only have a small hobby flock of 20, under 4 months of age, that we are raising from chicks. We do have several that are going through teen-testosterone temper-tantrums. I just sit out there in the pen and watch. I do have a hose in my hands. When the teen temper-tantrum starts getting too rowdy, they get a squirt of water. That stops it. After a few interventions, they learn..it's funny. We may also give the little monster a 'time out' session of a few days in our garage inside a dog crate, and some Kava Kava in their water (also can use Rescue Remedy). This seems to calm down the aggression over time. And amazingly they seem adjust to second or third-rank monster status, and let the number- one rooster be the leader. I find enough exercise and freedom helps too. Still, someone might try something once too often, and then gets the squirt. So I think it's a learning process. For me and them. Apparently as a result, they see me as their ultimate flock leader...lol! 🐓
If they are pecking at each others eyes try putting marbles in the with them.Sometimes it's because they like to peck at shiny objects.
Anything to keep them distracted and playing with something besides each other.
I mix chicken feed and water till its doey. it's basically play doh for chickens. they enjoy it.
noted
I dance, tell a few jokes. nothing seems to help, their savages
happens to mine today😔
Stale / unrisen bread hanging from a tripod.
My hen is getting bullied right now
Did u try the cabbage thing let me know if it helped cause i have a gang of 4 with their boss as well pecking on my 6 other hens 🤦♀️
Blinders word really great for pecking chickens.
Fight fight fight
❤️ ur video but......😵. Horrible sound at the end.
for the bully, I'm building a jail.
outro is a scary movie cow sound beware
Chicken on thumbnail got bullied by manny paquio
a multi bird swing
Chickens don't think how we think some rooster if they get rejected by a hen one time that's it he's own her like a hawk you won't be able to place her in with him again chickens have since of smell, and hearing , plus sight they sense difference through scent appearance , and sound but mainly with sight and hearing they know the difference between each other behaviors they know when another chicken is weaker or younger or older but some times it doesn't matter because when they fight it tells them everything they need to know and where they stand in the pecking order chickens live in the present but learn from past experience although at times can be curious they also can be cautious chicken also can be cocky this have nothing to do with the breed but individuality facts I raised barnyard chickens and fighting chicken bother natural heel and naked heel types all chickens have the same abilities what make the capability and non capability is how there bred that's dealing with shape form behavior but even that don't stop individual personalities in all breeds non fighting chickens still fight and still have the ability to kill and be agressive maybe not like slimmer cousins the fighting game cocks but it's in them why you think they have Spurs not to just run off enemies that's bullshit cause hens don't have Spurs not including the ones that do. Spurs give them and advantage against and opposing foe cutting their enemies to submission or death it's useless against and air predator like hawks chickens also play fight in all ages sometimes certain breeds or types don't get along that's normal if you see your rooster at of all your hens beating up on one hen stop trying to figure out why just move her period he knows why we can't think for or like them they don't reason like how we reason all the time like fighting to settle our differences certain hens roosters just don't won't period some don't like hens bigger than them some don't like darker or lighter some don't like certain breeds why?, Because they just don't period
Sounds like prison 😂
Poor chicks😪😥😢🐔🐣
Well where did Godfather go
Swing
BULLIES
My rooster is attacking my smaller rooster
I raised my chickens since there were chicks and now I saw two of the males begin to peck each other . I got these birds as a present since I’m not allowed to have a dog and i got attached to them, I cry when I see them fight and I know it’s normal but everything that I do won’t work. Realize that I got one hen and three roosters, if you’re a parent and want to give your child a chick, DON’T!! Because when the time comes, they’ll most likely ball their eyes out if they adore animals. ( This is my opinion, just get a dog!!! )
Now I’m raising another three chicks because the person selling them didn’t want to feed them anymore and gave them to me for free.I don’t know how im going to handle this.
humans should learn something from chickens.
Easy going ones and hard core ones no matter what mix them up
Was I the only person that found that this video was a little unsettling ? Very weird body language and the old man wouldn't look at the camera. Awkward...
Here's what u need. Listen
People