The pecking order

Posted by Jeanette on October 19, 2010 at 9:52pm

The chicks are about 9 weeks old, they get supervised yard trips outside of the coop, all seems to be well. There is a Buff and a black one (don't know the breed name) and the white one. The buff and the black one are now doing a wierd puff up, stretched neck thing, then they flap their wings, one flutters up and sits on the other, then they do this circle stare thing. Then the white one comes and kind of clucks around in between them and then they all go look for something to peck or scratch at. There's no pecking (got rid of the one who was doing that last month). Is this just normal chicken stuff? Will it escalate further or go away? It's pretty fascinating to watch.

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Replies

  • Jeanette October 21, 2010 at 6:30pm
    here are more pix of these chicks..roosters or hens? and then I am done with being a chicken photographer for awhile.

    10 21 d.JPG

    10 21 e.JPG

  • Jeanette October 21, 2010 at 4:14pm
    Well, doody. I thought I was getting these cute little chicks. They all seemed to be getting along in the pens at the feed shop. We read about the different kinds and tried not to get the aggressive ones. I probably should have gotten just the little white ones.. all same-o, same-o. I'll do pictures later. Have to go to the gym now and run off frustration on the treadmill. This conversation makes me kind of want to puff up, squawk, and run at all my neighbors.
  • Suze Scott October 21, 2010 at 11:08am
    The buff is a buff brahma. At 9 weeks, they are too young to tell for certain by pointed versus rounded hackle and saddle feathers. However, the brahma does look like he might have the beginnings of saddle feathers. On males the flow downwards in front of the tail, and I am seeing something that looks like the beginnings of that. Brahmas have a pea comb, so it will not get large as will a singl comb; yes, it will be larger than a hen's comb, but not too noticeable at this age. Not sure what the black or white one are. The white one has unusual colouring. Can you take close up still shots of each of the birds? Whole body from the side, from on top and closeups of the faces?

    FWIW, I have a few hens (not pullets) who are quite aggressive to other girls and some males as well. I've noticed the racist atttitude in birds more when they have been raised with only birds who are similar in appearance; when raised with a mix of breeds and/or varieties, there is much less racism.
  • Jeanette October 20, 2010 at 6:25pm
    OK, here are the chickens (which I hope are ALL girls). Of course, when you have a camera in hand they don't do what you want them to. This was pretty tame compared to yesterday. The white one still has some purple on her from that spray antiseptic. It finally did come off my hands.

    chickens.wmv

  • Becky October 20, 2010 at 8:12am
    I've seen pullets do it too.
    Why don't you post pictures 9 weeks is kind of young but maybe we can tell if you have cockerels or pullets.
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