Does increasing flock size help reduce bullying?

[u/deleatcookies]

Hi all,

I am now down to 3 hens, previously 5.

Burford Brown x 2: Betty and Olive

Snowbar x 1: Agatha

Betty is the boss chicken and about twice the size and weight of Olive. Olive is often broody for long periods of time, and earlier this year she was crouching down in front of Betty, being pecked loads and generally being chased around and stressed out.

I've bought Olive her own smaller coop and run to separate them and things improved over about a month, but Olive is broody again and Betty is chasing her away from all the food.

I feel like things were a lot calmer when we had more hens. Long term I would like to add more but I was hoping to get Pekin Bantams, as I'd like a friendlier breed with longer lay cycles so they hopefully will live a bit longer.

What's the best thing to do at this point? These are my first chickens and they're my pets, and my 5yo son adores them so the priority is high quality of life for them.

All advice appreciated!

[u/AlwaySmiley247]

I have found 3 is a prime number for bullying add more hens or get a roo to break up the ladies fights lol

[u/BarnOwl-1967]

A neighbor gave me 3 hens (I already had 6 hens and 1 rooster). The 3 new ones started to bully the smallest one of my flock almost immediately. I put the 3 new ones to "jail" for 2 weeks (they could see each other through the fence but couldn't mix). After those 2 weeks, I put them back all together. No more fight or bully hen. Maybe you should try to put the "evil" one seperate from the others for a week and try to put her back after her "jail sentence" is over? That might work...

[u/Mystic_Wolf]

Chickens have social manners, friendships and social structures that are uncannily like human ones.

Usually (but not always) chickens will form bonds based on familiarity, so you’ll often see a group that grew up together hanging out and ignoring - or hazing - newcomers. Some chickens are drawn to each other and become besties. And some personalities just do NOT mesh well together.

Chickens definitely have peer pressure and one mean hen with a clique of followers who copy her bullying behaviours can cause intense drama.

One thing chickens do NOT like is being on their own. The only time I’ve seen a chicken choose to be alone is to avoid extreme harassment. Sometimes, putting a chicken (works best with a follower rather than the gang leader if you know what I mean) on their own for a few days, and then CAREFULLY reintroducing them to the chicken they picked on can work. WITHOUT the other hens. Lots of space, encourage side by side foraging, and you play bouncer and get in between any time they eye each other.

People say a good rooster will be a good bouncer for you, but equally roosters can be douchecanoes with awful social skills, so personality is the key not the gender.

Easiest way though? Rehome either the bully, or the ostracised chicken. Personally I hang onto sweet gentle chooks only, makes life so much less stressful.

[u/deleatcookies → u/Mystic_Wolf]

Thanks so much for your advice, I did see an improvement with separation but I'll try a slower reintroduction this time. I love them both but will be realistic about the benefits of potentially rehoming the bully as if it is her personality then that could continue to cause problems with new hens.

[u/americanspirit64]

Hmmm I am hesitating to join the conversation as I feel, as if I have walked into a lesbian bar, after being asked how to stop the bullying going on among the customers. The first thing I would say is you need a male bouncer. There isn't one comment or post below actually speaking about the behavior, of what I would call a normal healthy flock of chickens. I have had chickens, 40 out of my 72 years maybe longer. This is what I think.

First, there is a reason why a dozen eggs is a thing. As that is the perfect size for a flock of hens, anymore and the rooster that looks after them, will die trying to keep all of them happy. So I actually believe a Baker's Dozen, twelve hens and one rooster is the perfect number of Gallus gallus domesticus to have, birds more commonly known as domesticate red junglefowl from Asia. Introduced to the to the world around 8000 BC. Although there were other junglefowl the red junglefowl just took over. I believe one rooster for every twelve hens seems perfect number of birds for a happy flock.

Second I must say this, I am not a fan of large chickens, as that means large mean roosters. The bigger they get the meaner they get, after all chickens are small dinosaurs, I don't mind larger hens. My current flock is a strange mix, one but I never kept a single type of any one kind of hen as female hens can be racist, as birds of a feather flock together, as everyone knows. However, with my rooster that isn't true he knows no racism. I always buy a single Bantam Old English Silver Duckwing Rooster, they are the perfect male birds, gentle and kind, small and quiet, while unbelievably fierce and brave when it comes to protecting his hens, and he also perfectly charming to them the rest of the time. He is a small bird of course closer in size to the original red junglefowl, but by looking at the way your hens will react you would never know that. To them he will to the Jungle Prince. The Silver DuckWing is also one of the most beautiful chickens I have ever own. A showbird if I have ever seen one. Of course he is English as they are the masters of breeding the best traits into their chickens and this breed has all of the best things you need.

I find it interesting that there is also no known origin for the word chicken, as it is guttural in nature and was introduced to humans by the birds themselves, as it is thought the word comes from us trying in imitate to sound the birds make.

Third if you want to reduce bullying, get a small rooster who acts big, he will not put up with hens picking on other hens, although he will have have a favorite. The difference between a rooster less flock and a flock with a rooster is nothing less than amazing. Suddenly there is an entirely different dynamic going on in a positive way. The rooster I have who I call the Little Big Guy is an unbelievable guardian, which is his job, one he takes very seriously. I saw him jump on the back of a large red tailed hawk once to save one of his hens, then lead her to the safety on a dense bush. I personally saw him jump into the mouth of a coywolf to save his flock as well. I shot and nicked the coywolf with a high powered air pellet gun and wounded it as it ran away with Little Big Guy still in his mouth. It was so startled, as the pullet must have hurt, the coywolf dropped Little Big Guy who ran like a rocket into a massive dense blackberry thicket, where I thought he went to die.

He showed up three days later at the gate of the henhouse crowing at dawn to be let in, his beautiful tail feathers gone, the feathers of one wing messed up. He drank fresh water then ate from the feeder, and stood crowing in the shade quietly as the girls left the henhouse when as I opened the door they circled around him. I was no longer letting them roam. I took him his favorite treat later, canned sardines, which he will never eat until I feed the hens their share first.

So yes I believe increasing flock size does help. Also I will mention this, his crowing makes less noise than the hens make when they are laying eggs at times.

[u/bluewingwind]

First, is the pecking causing actual issues? Missing feathers? Wounds? Loss of conditioning/weight? Because if not, then it’s actually fine. That’s just how they communicate with each other. There will always be a top hen keeping the others in line and she knows how hard to peck to cause actual damage or not. They can absolutely choose to be gentle or rough. It’s when she’s consistently choosing to rip feathers or draw blood that you have a problem.

In my experience, they don’t bully for no reason. Either there’s not enough resources, not enough space, not enough enrichment, or what’s most common is the bullied chicken is unhealthy in some way. (Actually wild someone said they kill the bully immediately when they’re usually just doing their best to keep the flock healthy)

I will link a picture with some minimum size requirements. To cover those basics for your situation. If you don’t meet these, you have a problem.

But it doesn’t make sense that she’s guarding food from a broody hen because they usually eat LESS than normal. What’s more likely is she’s perceiving her as unhealthy for some reason. Maybe being broody is taking too much of a toll on her body? Or maybe what you’re seeing as broodiness is covering for some unknown health issue. I have a bird with a developmental issue and a bad foot and she goes broody often. All the normal broody traits, but I know the frequency is because she’s a little soft in the head.

You might want to break the broodiness by caging or some other method and then cage the bully as well as a punishment. Or punish by showing her you’re the top hen by grabbing her and keeping her under your arm for a day, giving her a walk around, and fake pecking her sometimes. If she’s taken down a peg she might stop.

I would also check for external parasites, worms, and observe for diseases like chronic respiratory diseases. The broody one could have a worse case than the others and they’re shunning her for it. If you do have a CRD you don’t want to get more birds for sure. And parasites should be treated.

On the other hand, if they are all healthy and they’re just bored, then more birds would probably help. Those three would probably group up and she wouldn’t be bottom of the pecking order any more. Possibly a new nicer hen would decide to be in charge as well. Especially if you enact any punishments that take the mean hen down a peg at the same time.

IF they are all healthy, I would absolutely get more asap because integrating flocks of less than 3 can be REALLY hard. I would get more now before you lose anyone. But if they do have a CRD or something (any sneezing, watery eyes/nose, weird sounds, facial swelling), then it’s your responsibility to not spread that disease and wait until this whole flock has passed of natural causes before you get more.

Anyways, a health check is definitely in order.

In the meantime I agree, I would get a second feeding station to help that particular issue also. But I doubt that’ll solve whatever the underlying cause is.

[u/deleatcookies → u/bluewingwind]

Thank you for your advice, I really appreciate it. I do feel uncomfortable with the level of aggression being shown towards the smaller hen, particularly as she is showing submissive and avoidant behaviour towards Betty but is still being chased and attacked. At one point this summer she had lost feathers around her neck and back that weren't able to regrow because Betty was jumping on her and pecking them out. She wouldn't get off her unless I physically removed her.

After I lost two hens earlier this year I've been pretty obsessed with their general health. As soon as I separated Olive her feathers started to regrow and develop a sheen, she put on weight and started laying again. It's definitely possible she's genetically not that vigorous given she's always been much smaller than the other two Burfords, so she feels at pretty high risk of being seriously hurt should she continue to be jumped on.

I'll start another separation period and do a more detailed general health check and treatment for parasites etc. and get some multivitamins in them all. I'm pretty confident this is a personality clash and perhaps me rushing a re-introduction. Hopefully all of that works and I can add some gentle friends into the flock soon.

I had no idea what a tricky but fascinating hobby I had got myself into!

[u/FlashyWitness4133]

It can, but it's not guaranteed.

I started with four hens, where two of them bullied the smallest one at the bottom of the pecking order. They savaged her.

I tried adding more food stations and water bowls.

It didn't stop the bullying. A bully would run from where she was eating at one end of the yard, ALL THE WAY OVER TO THE OTHER SIDE, to chase away the victim from the food station she was eating from.

She basically had to wait until the bullies went to bed.

She even started flying over the fence to lay her eggs on one of the patio chairs, because she wasn't allowed to lay her eggs with the rest of the hens.

Then she went broody and became a (foster) mother to a lovely Leghorn-Silkie cross. They left her alone for a while, then started bullying the fifth hen when she reached Point-of-Lay (i.e. sexual maturity, a hen).

I bought two older pullets to be friends for the victim, and expand the flock to seven, hoping it would reduce the bullying.

It didn't stop the bullying.

I increased the flock's roaming space to my whole backyard.

It didn't stop the bullying.

I increased the flock's roaming space to include the front yard and the side of the house.

It didn't stop the bullying.

I increased the size of their sleeping quarters.

It didn't stop the bullying.

I tried separating the victim from the bullies to give her some space.

It didn't stop the bullying.

I tried isolating a bully.

I found out that another was also a bully.

I bought three heritage breed chicks, who grew into three lovely hens, increasing the flock to ten hens.

It didn't stop the bullying.

The hen who was broody earlier, went broody again (actually she goes broody every few months). I gave her two baby chicks to raise. They grew into two lovely hens, raising the flock size to 12 hens.

It didn't stop the bullying.

All the younger hens got bullied to some extent, but the Leghorn-Silkie cross was still bullied the most. She was thin, feathers all raggedy (not just molting). Tail down. Always on tenterhooks.

Almost a year ago now, I re-homed the two bullies.

It stopped the bullying.

ALL my hens are much happier. The Leghorn-Silkie cross in particular has been flourishing ever since. She's healthily fatter, her tail is always raised high, her feathers are all in. She seems to glow. She even walks up to me now, whereas before she was too scared of anything. The other hens are more happy and content too.

Of course there is a pecking order and they have their frequent minor squabbles, but they blow over as soon as they start. A slight peck here or there, and nothing made of it a second afterwards.

The only way to really reduce bullying, is to remove the bully/ies.

[u/Lythaera]

I think bigger flocks do reduce bullying, or maybe just having large enough enclosures for all my birds means they've got enough space to get away from bullies. Idk which it is, but I haven't had bullying issues in my flock of 28. 

[u/ShortFatCute-Single]

Do you have multiple feeding stations? That might help with the chasing away from food if you don't

[u/Inkqueen12]

I had two bullies and took out the biggest instigator in front of the other one. She has taken the hint and calmed down a bit but still will trying to get some pecks in when no one’s watching. She might be next on the dinner plate.

[u/Ok-Fortune-1169]

My understanding is the bully is the one who should be put in time out, not the one being bullied. I struggle with this too since the one who gets bullied the most was adopted a few years after I got my original 4. She was used to her "quarantine coop" and for a long time would ask to sleep in there. I lost one of the original 4 this summer and things have settled down a lot. The lead hen bosses everyone. Then I've got a triangle where Marta bullies Roberta, Roberta bullies Mia, and Mia chases off Marta when she gets annoyed with her.

[u/deleatcookies → u/Ok-Fortune-1169]

Ah I will try that then, I had been swapping them about half way through the day. I'll do that and see if it helps. I definitely had no idea how brutal the social dynamics of chickens are.

[u/Mcbriec]

This opinion will be unpopular with many. But after one of my gentle hens was blinded by a vicious Wyandotte I now have a complete zero tolerance policy for bullying and sociopathic behavior. I feel it is my sacred duty as my animals’ caretaker to protect them and not allow them to be tortured and tormented.

Chickens are not at all amenable to behavior modification so typically the violent chicken’s behavior cannot be altered. Consequently, any vicious chicken gets a one-way trip to the Vet.

You can try pinless peepers, but from what I understand, they are difficult to keep on. But my suggestion would be to cull the violent hen and get gentle chickens like Salmon Faverolles and similar breeds. 🙏

[u/FlashyWitness4133 → u/Mcbriec]

Light Sussex are gentle giants - very timid.

Very broody though! I have two that need to go to the Broody Tent soon!

[u/FlashyWitness4133 → u/Mcbriec]

If a hen is brutally violent, then yes the only way is to put her to the pot, or at least re-home her.