Chickens are interesting animals that all have their own unique personalities. While some chickens may be naturally more bossy and straight forward, other birds will be less confrontational and more submissive. When you have a flock of 40+ chickens, the exact pecking order can be harder to distinguish. However, I have managed to figure out the hens at the top of the pecking order and then those who are last. It’s the hens that linger in the middle that are tricky. Anyway, from what I’ve seen, our oldest and most watchful hen is at the top of the pecking order. We laugh about how she is constantly trying to attack some poor bird that lingered too near, while other times she snuggles right up to her fellow flock members. Meanwhile, it seems that our two Salmon Favorolle pullets are at the bottom of the pecking order. I’ve noticed and read that Favorolles tend to get bullied in mixed flocks, which seems to be true, but it’s nothing to the point of concern. Well, for our hens. When I put our Favorolle rooster out, Flash came at him whenever the poor guy came near. It was so sad and seemed constant, so I put the Favorolle rooster back into the coop. I need to put him out soon, now that I think about it…..
Figuring out the pecking order for the 5 roosters is much easier. Flash (Cream Legbar) would be the main man closely followed by our other Cream Legbar rooster. I say closely followed because the two are constantly butting heads. However, Flash remains the winner. Anyway, in third would be Mr. Maran, and no that’s not his name. I just call him that because he’s a Maran rooster and why not? Then our big boy Easter Egger followed by, last but not least, good old Welsummer. A bit off topic, but someone is coming this week to pickup the last Welsummer rooster that we have for sale, which is good. We have multiple people coming to pick up the roosters, so I hope to have no more roosters for sale by the end of the week! Yay!