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- Pecking Order is a Thing. Here’s How to Handle It.
  
  Posted at 8:00 am by HomeDabbler, on June 23, 2020
  
  Photo by Berend de Kort from Pexels
  
  Do some of your chickens push the others around? Do you have one or two that dominate the rest? Do you have trouble getting your big chickens to accept newer birds to the flock?
  
  It’s pecking order.
  
  That’s a Real Thing?!
  
  You’ve heard the phrase. It comes from the chicken yard, and it’s a thing.
  
  Chickens, like people, live in hierarchies. Fact is, some of your birds are going to rise to the top and some are going to be relegated to the bottom. This is typically just fine. However, sometimes those at the top will bully those at the bottom.
  
  Those at the top of the order should not cause physical harm to others or deprive them of food (which can happen). A little posturing is fine, but when it comes to truly hurting each other, you have to stop it.
  
  Here’s how.
  
  Reset the Order
  
  Did you know that your current pecking order doesn’t have to stay that way?
  
  Chicken behavior can be remarkably easy to change. Unlike mammals (dog and cats), chickens have primitive brains and are a bit like robots. They can be programmed. Change the program, change the behavior (I wrote a whole post on it).
  
  Step 1: Remove the Offending Chicken(s)
  
  As long as the bullies “rule the roost” (another popular term from chicken life), they will be bullies. But you can use the primitive chicken brain against itself.
  
  First, remove those at the top of the pecking order from the flock and put them in a separate location.
  
  I prefer a broody breaker. Don’t have a broody breaker? You need one. I wrote an article on that too. You can also use your nursery.
  
  Give them food, water, and nesting. Make them comfortable, but don’t let them near the other birds.
  
  Step 2: Wait
  
  This is the hard part. Most chicken raisers don’t like to see their birds locked up, even mean ones. But it is necessary if you want to reset the pecking order. Separate the bullies from the general flock for at least three days.
  
  While the dominant birds are away, something interesting will happen. The remaining birds will reset the pecking order. They will choose a new leader, often a bird that was near the bottom of the old order. Don’t know why, but it works.
  
  Step 3: Reintroduce the Bully Birds
  
  After a few days, simply take the birds out of lock down and put them back into general population. No special care required. They are now the “new birds” and should fall in under the new boss.
  
  Once the pecking order is reestablished, it usually doesn’t go back to the old way. Sometimes, but rarely. And usually, the new king or queen of the flock is nicer. Again, don’t know why, it just works.
  
  Rinse and Repeat as Necessary
  
  Things will usually stay peaceful for quite a while after the reset. However, if the birds at the top of the new pecking order get mean, repeat the process again until things calm down.
  
  We’ve never had to do it more than once at a time.
  
  Kevin
  
  P.S. – If you want more chicken articles, visit my Chicken page.
  
  Posted in Uncategorized | 0 Comments | Tagged chicken coop, chicken raising, Chickens
- Chicken Wire is Useless
  
  Posted at 8:00 am by HomeDabbler, on September 9, 2019
  
  It sounds so right.
  
  Chicken. Wire. Wire for enclosing chickens. What could go wrong?
  
  A lot. Chicken wire, also called poultry netting, is a lot like duct tape. Used for everything but good for nothing.
  
  You’ve seen it, the cute honey-comb pattern wrapped around rustic coops, the very model of American farm yard-ery. The only problem is that chicken wire, while visually pleasing, doesn’t do its job, at least not long term.
  
  The primary reason for enclosing your chickens in their own space – a coop, run, or nursery – is to keep them safe. Chicken wire is made of, well, wire. However, the wire is very thin. It is galvanized to withstand the elements, but will not over the long haul.
  
  Eventually, your chicken wire will rust and corrode. Because it is so thin, predators like raccoons can (and will) break it. And they don’t need much space to get in. A raccoon or fox can slink through a hole the size of a grape fruit.
  
  These predators play for keeps. I lost my entire flock of 12 chickens in one night when two coons broke in.
  
  2″ chicken wire. See how corrode-y?
  
  There is a better way
  
  There are three better options to chicken wire, based on application.
  
  1. 2″ x 4″ weld wire
  
  Weld wire is also made of galvanized wire, but it is much thicker than chicken wire and will last longer.
  
  While I do not recommend using weld wire for high-security areas like your run, it is fine for a broody breaker or yard fence.
  
  2. “Rabbit wire”
  
  Love this stuff, especially the kind coated with PVC. Rabbit wire is the common name for 1″ weld wire (it is commonly used for rabbit hutches).
  
  It is expensive, so use it sparingly. You would not use it to cover an entire run (you could, but you better have serious budget), but it is great for nurseries. The small spaces make it impossible for even the tiniest chick or slither-i-est rat snake to pass through.
  
  3. The ultimate: chain link
  
  Lasts for ages. Virtually unbreakable. Chain link is the ultimate poultry protection device.
  
  It is also expensive but you will not have to replace it for years and years and years. No predator (save a bear, maybe) can penetrate it. I use chain link to cover my run – top, sides, and along the ground – and haven’t lost a chicken to a predator since.
  
  My coop and run. Chain link on top, sides, and along the ground.
  
  You won’t regret it
  
  I used chicken wire for way too long and lost many birds along the way. If there is one tip that I wish someone had shared with me when I was a new chicken raiser, it would be this one.
  
  Dump the chicken wire and use something actually made for chickens.
  
  Kevin
  
  Posted in Uncategorized | 0 Comments | Tagged backyard chickens, backyard poultry, chicken behavior, chicken care, chicken coop, chicken raising, chicken run, chicken wire, Chickens
- How to Program a Chicken: Acclimating A New Flock
  
  Posted at 12:18 pm by HomeDabbler, on September 2, 2019
  
  Many new chicken raisers are afraid their chickens will run away or that they won’t come back to the coop at night. Luckily, chickens are like little feathered robots. You can program them to pretty much do what you want.
  
  It’s all about habits. Once a chicken establishes a behavior pattern, she almost never breaks it. That includes her sleeping and laying spots.
  
  How to Program a Chicken
  
  When you introduce new birds to your space, leave them locked in the run for several days, a week if possible. This will make them sleep in the coop and lay in the nest boxes. Don’t worry if they don’t lay right away.
  
  After a few days and nights in your run, their habit will be locked in and they will return to that spot every night, no matter how far they roam during the day.
  
  It’s all about habits. Once a chicken establishes a behavior pattern, she almost never breaks it. That includes her sleeping and laying spots.
  
  Feel free to let your flock loose in the yard at this point. Then watch as the sun starts to set. They will slowly scratch and peck their way back to the coop and put themselves to bed. Just shut and lock the door behind them!
  
  What if One Won’t Behave?
  
  Every once in a while you’ll get a rogue hen who wants to sleep in the yard. Wait till night fall, gather her up, and put her in the broody breaker for a few days. It should reset her habit.
  
  Kevin
  
  P.S. – Bantams are a little wilder than large breeds. They can be less likely to follow the patterns you set for them. Sometimes they are just going to sleep in the trees. It’s one of the reasons I quit raising them.
  
  Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment | Tagged chicken behavior, chicken coop, chicken raising, Chickens
- What To Do With a “Broody” Chicken
  
  Posted at 5:35 pm by HomeDabbler, on July 21, 2019
  
  You’re going to open your nest box one day and find a hen who refuses to leave.
  
  She will puff up and growl at you (and possibly peck) when you try to move her or retrieve eggs from under her. And she will stay there for days, even weeks if you let her. You have a broody bird.
  
  The term “broody” means a hen who wants to hatch eggs. A switch has flipped in her brain and the only thing she wants to do is gather a clutch of eggs and set them. She won’t leave the box, she will barely eat or drink, and she will literally look like she is in a trance. Because she is.
  
  Broodiness is nature’s way of turning your hen into an incubator. For chicken eggs to gestate chicks that hatch, the eggs must be brought to a temperature of precisely 95 degrees and be kept there for exactly 21 days. They must also be rotated several times a day.
  
  If your hen gathered a clutch and then went on with her normal daily activities, the eggs would die. The only way to create the perfect conditions for hatching eggs is if that hen does nothing but focus on them. Hence the trance.
  
  Now if you have some fertilized eggs you want to hatch when your hen goes broody, you’re in luck! She will do the job with shocking effectiveness. Just put the eggs under or near here and she will do the rest. It is truly something to see.
  
  But what if you don’t want her to hatch eggs? What do you do with a broody hen then?
  
  You have three options.
  
  1. Give her false eggs and wait.
  
  You can buy fake chicken eggs from McMurray Hatchery for just this purpose. Put a few under her, give her some space, and wait. It will take weeks, but she should eventually snap out of it and get on with her life. We’ve tried this and it works – sometimes. Some hens, after the 21-day “gestation” period is over, don’t hear the cheeping of babies and come out of the broody trance.
  
  We’ve had many others, though, who would not. They would set indefinitely, barely eating, for eggs that will never hatch. That’s why we generally use the second options.
  
  2. Put her in a “broody breaker.”
  
  I know the term broody breaker sounds cruel, but it isn’t. A broody breaker is simply a part of your coop away from the nest boxes where you can lock the chicken until she breaks out of her broodiness. Make sure your broody box is plenty big so she can walk around. Give her food, water, fresh air, everything. Just don’t give her a nest or eggs. And because hens don’t lay eggs themselves once they go broody, she can’t lay any in the breaker.
  
  My broody breaker. Plenty of comfort, just no eggs.
  
  She will be pretty unsettled the first day, pacing the breaker box and griping you out. But she will break out of broodiness much, much faster. We have never had to keep a hen in the breaker box more than three days.
  
  Some may not like the idea of a broody box, that it is unnatural, maybe even cruel. I disagree. To me, letting a chicken neglect herself for weeks when you know she will never hatch eggs is worse than helping her get back to her normal life quicker.
  
  Broody box quick tip: Use your nursery area as a broody breaker. Unless you have chicks in there when a hen goes broody, it should be unoccupied. This is what we do.
  
  3. Give her day-old chicks to raise.
  
  If one of your hens goes broody at a time when you were going to buy chicks anyway, let your broody girl raise them. Buy the chicks and wait for night to fall (it is best to do this at night). Place the chicks under the hen from behind. This will trick her into thinking her eggs have hatched. Momma and babies will know what to do from there. It is not 100% guaranteed, but she will very likely take them to raise.
  
  Broody is as broody does.
  
  Some chickens never go broody. Others do it all the time. Now you’ll know what’s going on if one of your hens suddenly growls at you.
  
  If you have any questions, feel free to message me through my HomeDabbler Facebook page.
  
  Kevin
  
  P.S. – Wanna know more chicken stuff? Pop over to our Chickens page.
  
  Posted in Uncategorized | 4 Comments | Tagged broody, chicken raising, Chickens
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