September 16th, 2010
I was woken up this morning by a loud melee in the coop, the price of sleeping with the window open on a Fall night. I sat up to figure out what on earth was going on and watched as Ellie, Farrah and Hawkeye chased Goldie locks around whaling on her. She was flying to the perches trying to get away from them and they would fly after her and peck her some more, especially Ellie. What the hell???!!!! Goldie had become the dominant one so how in the world were they all attacking her? I threw on some shorts and ran out there. It was obvious everyone in the run was upset, but why? I looked around and couldn’t figure it out. These birds had turned into a passel of jealous, fighting teenage girls overnight. The only thing I can think of is that perhaps since Goldie is broody and hasn’t been sleeping in the coop with the others at night that they have now disowned her, or maybe she went after Ellie if Ellie got too close to the nesting boxes, or maybe it is rampant hormones since they are all getting close to the point of laying. Ellie, who had not necessarily been very aggressive before, is now an instigator, even charging and pecking at me when I went into the run. I scratched her chest and petted her on the back and then picked her up to make her settle down some and let her know I am still the boss of this coop! I ended up petting them all to calm them down some. Very odd behavior. A chicken’s life...never a dull moment.
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