bi-sexual hen!!

Hi,  one of  my legbars- Elsie seems to have lost the plot. She is about 9months old and is laying, but the problem is, she has taken to chasing my little black pekin around.  As soon as she sees her she makes  a b line for her but the strange thing is, she then mounts her, really gets on top, pecks her head too.Poor little thing, she is half the size  and is now petrified of her and hides in the garden and spends most of the time on her own now instead of integrating with the other 9 girls. I have seen Elsie mount one of the other hens too, but it is the pekin she wants.  The pekin used to be top hen, she doesn't challenge Elsie.
So any ideas anyone , has she gone bi-sexual?

I had one of my hens do this to several of my others. That was until I got a cockerel and now everything seems somewhat natural again.

You could try removing the dominant hen but leaving her within sight of the others and then putting her back after 2 or 3 weeks. This way she would lose her place in the pecking order. As long as the Pekin is not getting physically injured you may be better to let them sort it out. It is horrible to watch 'bullying' but it is nature in this instance.

Quote from: Sassy on February 19, 2011, 10:35

You could try removing the dominant hen but leaving her within sight of the others and then putting her back after 2 or 3 weeks. This way she would lose her place in the pecking order. As long as the Pekin is not getting physically injured you may be better to let them sort it out. It is horrible to watch 'bullying' but it is nature in this instance.

If you remove the top hen and then put her back she will have to reassert herself causing more friction.
As you say best to let it quieten down naturally.

Actually, you should always remove the bully, not the bullied.  It is rare for a top hen, once removed, to fight her way back to being top hen.