Don’t be fooled, chickens take their pecking order seriously and “pecking” is a fully literal term and not a metaphor. The older birds go to town on the younger one and they draw blood and may even kill the younger bird. In the worst instances a full-blown pecking order assault takes place. They usually start with a bit of a glare or a scowl to tell the hen they’ve messed up but if things go any further – they will start pecking at each other.
The moment a bird on the lower rungs tries to step out of line and go ahead of their turn – the higher ranked hens will start to get angry. This order is set in stone and resembles at time, a gang of teenage girls and yes, chickens are every bit as bad as the girls at enforcing their group rules. Chickens get involved in rankings early in their lives, they are included in the pecking order by the time they are six weeks old. This all means that in your flock, there are some matriarchs holding the top slots and a bunch of other hens looking to move up. This kind of organization means that the well being of the strongest and fittest (and thus the most likely to survive and the members of the flock whose genes are best passed down to the next generation) is always prioritized over the weakest and least fit. This might seem mean at first glance but it’s actually an evolutionary trait. However, roosters tend to be fairly disinterested in what goes on between the hens and their place is based on their ability to defend the birds from outsiders. If a rooster is part of your flock, he occupies the top slot in the pecking order. High ranked birds are entitled to their pick of roosting spots, the best food and as much water as they can drink and the lower ranked birds, get whatever is left. This means that each bird has a place in the pecking order. Thorlief Schjelderup-Ebbe was the person to coin the term thanks to his research into the dynamics of flock hierarchy back in 1921 and somehow, it caught on and was popularized in the 1930s and onwards. It is quite literally a hierarchy within any given group of birds. The term “pecking order” comes from the bird world. The good news is that you can do something about this, and your chickens don’t need to suffer needlessly. Want to know why your chickens are pecking each other? Well, rather like people, some chickens are horrific bullies and thanks to the “pecking order” they often bring other chickens in to help them pick on the weakest or lowest ranked birds. If you’ve ever spent time around chickens, then sooner or later you may notice them start pecking at each other and it’s absolutely natural to wonder whether this is healthy behavior or the sign of something more sinister? Well, it could be either of these things and if it’s something sinister, you’ll need to take quick action to ensure the health and safety of your chicken.
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