When a chicken goes broody, do they lose their place in the pecking order?
I have a buff orp that was broody for a long time. We finally broke her of it and the other day I noticed that there was a LOT of squabbling going on that involved her. Then last night and tonight, she was not in the coop. She must have spent last night in the bushes somewhere.
Tonight when I went out to lock the coop, there was another chicken standing on top of the door into the coop. The buff was nowhere to be seen. Do you think the other chicken was guarding the entrance so the buff couldn't come in?
How do I get them to work this out because I don't want to keep locking the buff out of the coop? Last night we left the coop unlocked. Today she was out and about in the run (yesterday also) and no squabbling was going on. I figured they had worked things out after I saw them getting along yesterday but maybe not.
Any ideas?
broody chick being picked on
When a broody actually hatches chicks, she seems to, if anything, rise in the pecking order....she is usually so determined to protect the chicks, nothing messes with her.
But I think if she just disappears for a while and then is back, it is just like any new or newly reintroduced chicken that has to be worked into the pecking order. And Buffs are said to have a tendency to be bullied (though mine never were).
I have a mixed bantam, Charlotte, who is brooding in the coop where the other chickens see her everyday. She was a high ranking chicken before she went broody and she seems to be keeping her rank. I think it is because whenever any of the other birds look in the coop she hisses at them. Nothing scarier than a broody bantam.
yep, any broody will get pecked at, we had one that was getting into fights with the other hens. When they hatch chicks they do get very protective and the others leave them alone. We usually seperate the momma and babies from the rest of the flock.
We have one Blue Cochin however that the others will now not accept back into the pen. Same thing happended last year when she hatched babies and they finally accepted her and all was fine. This time though they continue to terrorize her so we have her next to the pen but seperated. Poor thing.
She was never separated from the flock at all. She was always in one of the nests (and would move around to make way for hens who wanted to come in and lay) and would occasionally go out to forage. I went a lot and booted her off the nest to try and break the broodiness. My chickens don't go up in the roost area at night. They cluster around the opening to the door that leads down and out of the coop. The nest is right next to that. So she was never far from the other chickens, day or night. During the day when she would be out with them, there were no problems.
So my question is - how do I break this? Should I capture her and put her back into the coop with the others at night and hope it works things out.
I'm not 100% sure she is being picked on - she may be the one instigating it. I saw her fly at some of the others pretty good. I did think it was wierd to have that one chicken sitting on the door into the coop tho like she was guarding it. Maybe she was just sitting there. But all the others were already upstairs and lined up in their spots. (Which changes from night to night.)
Well, we figured out where she was going at night! She was up in the roosting area. LOL None of our chickens has ever gone up there. They prefer to huddle around the door opening. Jim went out to close up last night and she was peering down from the rafters so he saw her. So all is well. I only noticed the fighting two days last week so that appears to be over. Yay!