Did you know chickens are attracted to red which is why the base of chick feeders are often this colour to attract chicks. This is why blood on a chicken is bad news as the area will very quickly get pecked.
All flocks of chickens have a well-defined order known as the pecking order. A chicken at the top of the pecking order gets to do the things she wants by 'pushing the others around' a little, giving them a short, sharp peck if they don't submit to her, allowing her to go where she wants to go or access food and drink first. Chickens have a pecking order so that when food is available there are no fights.
The bird at the top of the pecking order will have first access to water, food, the best roosting place and so on. The bird at the bottom of the pecking order has the least ‘rights' in the flock and will usually be the last to the food and will ‘skirt' around food that is scattered for them, nipping in to grab a beak full when possible. She (or sometimes he) has last rights to food and other resources.
The following clip, taken from the BBC documentary "The Private Life of... Chickens" shows the pecking order in action:
Once pecking order is established and birds are fully grown, it usually remains unchallenged unless one of the birds becomes stronger, healthier or matures and challenges the hen higher up the pecking order. When introducing new chickens to the flock, the pecking order is upset and needs to be re-established. This is very stressful for the flock and it is usually best to keep birds of similar ages together to prevent younger birds getting bullied too much or older birds being constantly challenged for their position in the pecking order as younger birds mature.
Last Updated on Friday, 04 February 2011 18:06
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Keeping Chickens 
