Is it normal for hens to spar?

[elmdene]

My two new pekin girls are exhibiting what seems to me to be quite odd behaviour. They frequently rush/flutter about madly for a second or two and end up head down and bottom up in a sparring position, and they also spar with each other. I am 99% certain they are girls!! They haven't laid yet but neither have they crowed and they have hen sized combs. I've seen cockerel chicks doing this before but not pullets, and they are at least POL so not chicks any more. I picked them from a big group of chickens so could they be establishing a pecking order - although they don't always do it with each other, more often individually. Is this normal or are they mad?! 07

 

[chrismahon]

Based on my experience to date, it is the same as you have seen Elmdene. Young chicks will exhibit that behaviour, but both sexes, and so will young cockerels. But after about 8 weeks they settle down. Perhaps it is down to having far more available space so they have freedom they have never had before to 'play'. Our new cockerel Zebedee rushes around his enclosure for no apparent reason and ends up in the same pose. He moved from 20 chickens in a 10 square metre inside run to 5 in a 100 square metre outside enclosure. I'm sure they will calm down when they start to lay.

 

[BabyBantam]

Mine (mildred no longer with us) and Nancy used to do this when free ranging in the garden occasionally. When they got a bit too far apart, they'd start squawking, fluttering about and end up beak to beak until one of them backed down. They where best friends and it never came to anything other than us laughing at them. I think its a pecking order thing, but not sure as they where the only chooks that have ever done it? As long as they're not hurting each other....