A chicken doesn’t appear to be a complicated bird, but the social structure of a flock is complex. A flock’s hierarchy is known as the pecking order and finding where they fit within that order begins on around Day 3 of a chick’s life. It starts with jostling for position, squawking and pushing over other chicks at feeding time, turning into feather pecking fights by Day 16. The arguments will continue for around 10 weeks in a female-only flock; expect it to last a few weeks longer if you are raising a group of males.

The pecking order is an instinct, mostly related to feed but also water, nest boxes, perches and dust baths. This is why it’s very important to always have plenty of well-spaced feeders and waterers, an ad lib supply of both food and water so birds lower in the pecking order don’t miss out, and plenty of room for birds to move away from each other and be safe.

The pecking order is established separately for males and females in the same flock – that is, there is a pecking order for males and a separate one for females in mixed sex flocks – and the process follows a well-recognised sequence:

1. On Days 1-3 there is a strong imprinting or bonding period when the newly-hatched chicken bonds onto the broody hen; in commercial situations they bond onto other objects and, because of this, are more easily trained;

2. This is followed fairly quickly by the development of escape behaviour, a protective mechanism;

3. Shortly after, the first signs of aggressive behaviour are seen where two chicks approach each other aggressively but before contact is made they race away, ie escape;

4. This stage is followed by a period of play fights where they spar but do not make real contact;

5. the final stage is where real contact is made, the truly aggressive stage, and it’s from these true fights that the dominant/subordinate relationships are established; the age that this is completed depends on the size and complexity of the flock but in most cases would be sometime after 10 weeks of age.

Once a pecking order is established, birds will live in a harmonious state with no obvious dominant/subordinate relationship until the flock structure is altered. In practice, you need to give consideration to the social organisation of your flock in order to minimise the disturbance of established relationships during times when performance could be affected.