Chicken thuggery

[chrispenglish]

We've got a 4 bird Eglu and, as happens got down to a single chick (a hybrid Blue that had stopped laying 6 months ago)

We decided to introduce 3 new girls (POLs) having had success doing this in the past. Oh dear......

I was expecting Mrs Grey to assert herself a bit and then calm down but she has continued to terrorise the youngsters to the extent that they stay indoors if she is out in the run and only come out if we kick her out into the garden. If we close the coop with all 4 out in the run the youngsters cower (literally) at the opposite end. If she approaches (looks menacing to me), they frantically try to get to the other end and get battered as they go past (particularly Mrs White). This can go on for hours and shows no sign of abating.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

Unless she stops I can't see the other 3 having any quality of life

[tosca]

They can be horrible can't they? I haven't any experience of this sort of thing but have heard of it. Is there any way she could have a small run of her own? Even if it's temporary till your other girls get their confidence? Is Mrs Blue friendly enough to re-home as a pet?

Not really useful, I'm sure someone should be able to help. Let us know what happens.

[doofaloofa]

[Crickleymal]

From my experience it will eventually calm down but it can take a month or so. We have 3 White Stars that we bought together from what used to be the Domestic Fowl Trust at Evesham and even though they were living together before we bought them there is still a bit of bullying going on. Fortunately these lot do it quietly unlike our other birds so we ren't worried about the neighbours.

[Big Al]

This was the norm for me and the way I eventually sorted it was to use the water jet on the hosepipe. Now believe me when I say we tried everything. It cost us many many pounds in sprays, treates, different coups, runs etc so we let all of them out in the garden and kept the most attacked chicken near us and when Speck ( the speckledy ) came flying up to attack red I pressed the trigger and sprayed her with water. Speck would run away, dry off then come back again. Again the water treatment and eventually after about 12 times she behaved herself learning that if you flew at red she would get wet. Now it wasn't sprayed up the feathers or at her head etc but a gentle soaking all over.

When she walked up to red and left her alone nothing happened with the water.

They all live happy together now but Speck is still the boss.

[doofaloofa]

Do you have a rooster OP

Maybe the hens are sexually frustrated

[chrispenglish]

Ha ha ha! Lmao

[chrispenglish]

Thanks for those

In the absence of a rooster, we're letting the Thug out of the run and shutting her out whilst the youngsters grow a bit in size & confidence and see how it goes after a couple of weeks.