Bush eggs: one. Nest box eggs: none. Feed hopper: getting low.
These crow-offs for a higher place in the pecking order are very obvious, but most of the pecking-order reinforcements are quite subtle – a swift peck here, a shove there, who gets to lay in which nest, who sleeps next to Jack (ME!!), which hen is first out the door in the morning (ME), and who gets ‘ticked off’ Jack’s list first (me, sigh).
The pecking order doesn’t change until the individuals within it change. This can be by birth, death, first egg, first crow, sickness or rude good health. Then the others fill the vacuum in the pecking order left by that chicken.
Do chickens really need a pecking order? Of course. Without order there is chaos and with chaos comes shell-less eggs, empty feed hoppers and stressed-out chickens.
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