Please send advice. One of my hens is attacking our peacock (male). This is new behaviour. She is running after him and yanking out a tail feather and eating the skin or whatever which pulled away with the feather. When she is done with one she runs and pulls out another, eating what she finds. The peacock is trying to defend himself but loses in the end (not intended as a pun). I've noticed a couple of tail feathers on the ground in the past few days, but thought maybe the peacock had pulled them out himself or damaged them somehow. This is only one hen. The others run away from her. Will this pass? Should be cull her? What advice do you all have?
Need advice fast about agressive Hen
I would separate her immediately from the peacock--chickens become very entrenched in their behaviour if allowed to repeat it. I think she may always be a problem--but possibly if you disrupt the behaviour immediately and prevent her from resuming it for a while, she may forget about doing it.
If not, I'd cull her--and I never cull. Possibly someone might want her as a layer--but if she does anything like this to other chickens, she is a danger to them.
I suppose she might be reacting to some sort of nutritional deficiency--but since none of the others are showing similar behaviour, the offending chicken might have a genetic tendency to react to the deficiency in this way... and that isn't easily solved.
This message was edited Jan 3, 2010 2:28 PM
Well, all things considered I don't think she has a vitamin or nutritional deficiency. I was leaning towards culling, but wanted to make sure. Hope none of the others start in with this. DH and I love our hens but also love our peacock!
Thanks for the quick responce, Catscan!
I have one red silkie hen I call Bad Bertha. She likes to peck the baby chicks. I don't know why, she's just more aggressive than the others. She gets along with the other hens because they don't put up with her, but the babies are defenseless.
I think something is wrong with the red silkies from Ideal hatchery. I've seen SilkieChic comment that she doesn't think they are even really silkies, they are so aggressive. I tend to agree with her on that.
I'll just keep the babies away from her, until they get big enough to defend themselves or learn to run fast.