Pecking orders

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Chris Byers on November 27, 2009 at 5:14pm

You are encountering one of the problems often experienced when you have mixed breeds of chickens. Some combinations will work out okay but it is not uncommon for one breed to be overly aggressive towards another.
One thing a person can do to reduce some of this aggressive behavior in your own flock is to study the breeds you want to raise and select birds with more similar temperaments and size that is more similar. The gentler and more passive breeds are best not placed with more aggressive or flighty breeds. Also small breed birds have a hard time defending themselves from larger breeds; it is simply a size issue. Remember a 1-pound difference in 4.5 to 5.5 is 22%, 4.5 compared to an 8.5 is 89%. That is a lot bigger hen or rooster for a Phoenix to deal with or any of the smaller breeds to deal with.

For chickens and most livestock, it is a matter of survival. The instinct is to be the boss and ensure one's own survival even if there is enough food, shelter, and room. If they feel at all stressed, this becomes worse and the behavior becomes amplified. If you have a particularly timid animal, this will also set up a very bad dynamic for the flock.

Chickens are omnivores and like to hunt small animals, I feel this trait leads to some of the aggressive behavior found in chickens. In addition, many chickens tend to be territorial or just plain mean, it does happen.

So I would caution people to look into what breeds you want to raise and do a little matching of size and temperament if you want to raise more than one breed at a time. Dealing with a pecking order you cannot fix is emotionally draining and often can be largely avoided by doing some research beforehand.

Sorry to read about your troubles, bu thanks for letting others know this can happen.

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by LeAnn Holcomb on November 28, 2009 at 7:27pm

Thank you for your response. It is good to know it wasn't just me, or me not spending enough time hand raising the little buggers. I keep them for eggs production, and spent some time handling them as chicks just to be sure I could handle them later as needed, but they are not "pets".
I do find it interesting that the little buttercup hen bosses the big Golden-laced Wynadottes. She doesn't boss the White Jersey Giant but she doesn't get picked on either: she holds her own. I love her personality, and she is insatiably curious: she is always the first one to investigate anything new, to figure out how to get through any new barriers I put up, how to escape any place left escape-able, and to find whatever treat I've tied to my shoe. She doesn't like being petted but will eat from my hand. And between ButterCup and the White Queen, wighing in at about 7 pounds at present, the neighborhood cats leave them alone. Even my own cat is afraid of the terrible duo. When I am working out there, Cha-Cha comes out to watch them, but hides behind me the whole time. Ever seen a cat get chased by chickens? It is hysterical! I can't encourage it, but it's impossible not to laugh out loud. Then I lock the cat door again. Mostly to keep the chickens out, rather than the cat in. [The flock doesn't get much time on the grass unless I am there, I lost the last flock to coyotes despite a 6+foot bock wall. In the North-Central corrider of Phoenix. !].
I am lucky that I can split my housing for the flock, and let them out on the grass seperately or together as needed. Today they were out together because I was doing massive clean-up, water system checks, and stuffing the eaves to keep out the wild birds. Those morning doves are as bad as sparrows, and I am tired of feeding them. I hunted down all the places the chicken wire hadn't been tight or had worked lose, and re-stapled. I had to wrap the eaves in bird net because the wire just wasn't keeping out the sparrows. I hate working with bird net though, because it gets trashed by leaves every fall, and is tough to clean. Bad Me, I just pitch it out in the spring and replace it tiwce a year: but the space is only about 6 inches tall and 10 feet long, and it takes too much time and trouble to clean it.
FYI, I figured out how to do cool water for chickens this year: I use an automatic water: but I connected the hose to the drain valve of a 40 gal igloo cooler. The cooler doesn't have to keep the water cold, just drinkable, and it did a good job. I put in misters this year, also. I ran them for 2-3 hours in the mid-to-late afternoon on the days when the offical peak temp was at 110 or more, until it fell below that again. I really want to keep Buckeyes, but the main guy who raises them out east says that they don't do well in heat. If the misters etc help the White Jersey Giant do well though, maybe he'll consider letting me try them. I want to try the Buckeyes because they are known for eating rats. The White Giant is supposed to do it too, at least the baby rodents. Do you know of any other breeds that might be good for rodent control? Death to Roof Rats!

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Chris Byers on November 28, 2009 at 8:17pm

LeAnn,
Sounds like you have some interesting ideas, the mister is one I recommend to help birds during the hottest part of the day/year. One other thing that helps chickens during hot weather is to not give them any scratch or other treats, just the feed in the feeders. The action and excitement they have when getting scratch or extra treats raises their body temps and that is not too good for them.

Several of the larger breed birds like to do in rats and mice given the chance, they are omnivores after all and enjoy the hunt, some more than others.

I love the cooler idea, not too much trouble and easy to set up.
I agree about the doves, they are the biggest danger to my garden so far, just tear it up when I have seedlings.

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Chris Kartchner on November 27, 2009 at 9:01pm

wish i had paid more attention to this. I have five little chicks bought a couple of weeks ago and I bought one of each of what they had.

the buff orpington is the biggest , but the americauna and the RIR are teh bullies of the group. Teh little black sex link gets bullied awful fierce.

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Rachel on November 29, 2009 at 4:17pm

I think that temperament is a much more important issue than size. Of course if you end up with a small bird way down on the pecking order from some Jersey Giants or something, then that's bad news. When you say bullying, does that mean there's blood? There will ALWAYS be a pecking order and some level of aggression if a low totem chicken is trying to eat something that a higher up one wants etc. I'm having a hard time understanding how many birds you have (in each coop) and I don't think you told us how much space they have, and how many roos you have.

Chris K.-- Don't worry about this yet. My guess is your RIR is going to be #1, they're usually a pretty dominant bird. If you just have 5 birds and they get plenty of space the odds are in your favor that everything will work out fine. There is always going to be a bird at the bottom, you just want to make sure that a little bullying doesn't turn into injury.

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Chris Kartchner on November 29, 2009 at 9:09pm

Rachel,

thanks for the advice and the class you taught. I should have plenty of room for the five birds in the run (when they get there), as there are only five and it will be 8'x21'. They will be more crowded in the summer under the shade, but if the neighbor keeps his tree untrimmed they should have plenty.

no blood right now, just the usual pecking order of pushing and shoving especially when they are trying to nest down together, or I have just refilled the feeder. I think the black sex link is a few days younger than the rest, or so it seems like since we got them, she is slower to feather and smaller since day one. she gets plenty of feed and water, but i notice she feeds at different times then some of them.

they certainly have different personalities. The buff seems to be outside the order some way as the other chickens do not peck her, and she does not peck them, but get out of her way when she moves to the feeder or waterer. the little black sex link tags around her alot as well. the Buff also always likes to come to me and hop into my hand, while the rest of them scream and run around.

the americauna is the class A bully of the group sometimes taking a flying leap into the others when they are feeding or watering and constantly pecking them. the RIR is next in the group for pecking and the red sex link next from there.( for all I know the RIR and the red sex link are the same variety, they are similar in color with a few differences, they were in different pens when we bought them.) the RIR started pecking the most but by middle of week two the americauna ( for all i know it's just an easter egger, but I do not know better.) took over. She is also the biggest next to the buff, having gotten alot bigger than the others she started out pretty even with.

Chickens are certainly interesting to say the least.

▶ Reply to This