They are mean to the other hens and they are EATING EGGS!!!!! Yesterday I only got 2 eggs AGAIN! Egg count should be going up and not down! I guess it pays to keep count by the day for a weekly report!
Hens who were happy in the pen in the barn are no longer happy there and have learned to escape (fly). I now have chickens all over the barn! Most of the "mean girls" are the black sex links I got at TSC to try them out. The other 3 are Americaunas. I would have Americaunas again, as I think this is just a learned thing from them. But the black sex links have been mean from the day I got them at TSC as new chicks!
They have sealed their fate. It's time for an add to sell them. I have 1 Americauna who is half Cochin who doesn't join in and she can stay. There is a really pretty sex link that I might keep a while and see if she settles down or remains a mean girl.
I wish I could do graphics. I'd make a red circle with the bar and have a hen and the label "mean girls" in it! NO MEAN GIRLS!Shame on them!
I'm sorry you're having a tough time with your girls. I have to say, though, my Black Sex Links have been the best, even second generation! They have been the sweetest, calmest hens I've had. Now, the Red Sex Links...they were pure evil and I will never keep those again. The Americaunas are fiesty but dedicated layers and don't eat eggs.
ReplyDeleteI hope you get to the bottom of it!
Interesting how we have opposite experiences with the BSL and RSL's! The BSL started out being mean when I got them home and in the brooder. They harrassed all the other chicks in the brooder, even the larger chicks! The others were Cochins and they are really calm and easy going so they didn't assert themselves.
ReplyDeleteI definitely think the egg eating is a learned behavior though.
I put an ad on Craigslist today and hopefully can sell them and the roos I listed.