Jail Bird

Guilty as Charged: The Bully

What do you do when a chicken becomes a bully? Place it in chicken "jail," according to the experts.

Pecking order is serious business in the chicken world. Hens who start getting bossy, making the others miserable, need to be reigned in.

In larger flocks, it's a bird-eat-bird world, where everyone has to fight for their right to the roosting bar, but, in small backyard flock of pet birds, like ours, vigilant chicken keepers can step in and set things right.

The Victims: Loola & Lacey

In our case, we have Madonna, our Polish hen, who is the culprit. She chases around "Baby Girls," as Brie likes to call them, Loola and Lacey, and gives them no access to the outdoor run, holding them hostage inside the coop. What a miserable existence they have been leading, and it was high time for Brie and I to put a stop to this nonsense.

The great thing about birds is their limited memory when it comes to recognizing their own as members of the flock.

By separating out the naughty bird, you can reintroduce her at a later date and she will be perceived as "new" and treated as such.... back to the lowest rung on the roosting bar. Ha!

This we did with Madonna, on Memorial Day... yes, that is how we spent our time, not lounging on the beach with all the other Westporters, but rather tending to our chicken dilemmas.

Off to the "Slammer" She Goes

Here she is being "escorted" to her new domicile.

And here she shall stay until we deem her ready to be re-introduced to her flock.

No worries, our marvelous Madonna is being well cared for with food, water and her very own nesting box, until said date when we release her from solitary confinement.

Madonna: Jail Bird

We'll update everyone on how this works out. Stay tuned for Part II of "Jail Bird."