Chooks squaring up to each other, behaviour question

Hello all you chookologues out there.

Now that my girls have free range for at least a few hours a day I am really enjoying watching them and what they do. They are currently testing all the bushes in the garden as roost spots and doing their best to fly from place to place.

I notice that if one of them flies over to one of the others they often do something that looks a bit like dancing but I suspect isn't. Both chooks run together with their heads low, and as they meet they both stand up tall and look as if they are about to bump breasts (though they never quite touch). They stand absolutely still for a moment, then get on with whatever they were doing.

Does anyone know what this means? I haven't seen a pattern in which chooks do it, it seems to be all 3 of the younger girls at random.

Ideas received with interest!

Can't think what it might mean other than a challenge to the pecking order but this normally involves some pecking so maybe they're pacifists. :blink:

I'll be watching this thread with genuine interest.

Rob

my girlies do it all the time!  the one that holds the position the longest is top girlie with the other lowering her head and walking off. really funny to watch especially when they do it through a fence! they go up and down and up and down 

In chicks its playfighting, in cockerels it is an antagonistic behaviour and a precursor to a fight. If hens square up like this it is because they are quite well matched in the hieracy, and they are both trying to oust the other in the pecking order by using intimidation.

We've had our hens for a week and they square up to each other just like you describe.  There's never any pecking involved unless there's treats to be had.  Funny to watch though/.

I had a warren do it for a while when I was new to chooks.  Then i realised she was getting noisy too?   Closer inspection revealed that she had developed spurs on her legs and was indeed going through a sex change. She grew substantially and took over as top bird (when I say bird - I mean that as in feathered - not as in once a bird - now a bloke)

Never crowed properly though - kept expecting to see her on one of those Channel 5 programmes like "the boy with an ar*e for a face"  - under the title "the chicken lady-boy"

On the odd occasion that I have to put a new rooster in with the layer flock each hen will in turn go do a little sparring with the new guy.

 Usually a good rooster will keep squabbles to a minimum but I have had hens that would get into serious fights too. Even though they don't have spurs they can inflict serious damage to each other.