Hen pecked - need advice please

[Gorsty]

I have kept chickens for several years and have never really had that much trouble when new girls are introduced - well that has now changed!

On 26th March I had two new girls from Fresh Start for Hens so as we had a spare house & run kept them separate from our resident pair for a week or so and have in recent weeks tried to integrate them together - both pen areas are right next to one another so it's not as though they havent seen one another before.

Unfortunately, now that they are mixing together, the resident pair have decided they want to take over the newbie's house and so every time the newbies try to go into their own house, to lay or feed, then they are set upon by the Chief Hen, Adele and then Doris, her buddy joins in. It is not nice to watch.

Ihis week I have resorted to leaving the older girls in their house & run until laying is over but then, as soon as Adele is let out - over she goes to reassert her dominance.

Any ideas what I can do?

Fortunately we have quite a large communal run so if she attacks when they are out of the actual house run, then there is plenty of room to get away- and it's not as though she is always in attack mode, as they actually all sunbathe together but the two older ones tend to feed/scrat around separate from the newbies.

What do you think?

Kind regards

[Scarlet]

It's always tricky introducing new ones. You could wait it out and see if it all settles down in a few days, don't intervene even though it looks horrible.
The other alternative maybe to isolate the bully, stick her in the new run on her own and the new ones in with the other oldie. The new ones will start to use the old coop to lay and when you introduce the single hen back in she will be on the back foot (fingers crossed).
Either aren't guaranteed to work but if it was me I would take her out for a bit.

[Gorsty]

That sounds like a good plan Scarlet so have put Adele into the smaller house/run and banged up the newbies with Doris.

Do you think I should keep them ALL banged up for a few days to get them used to the idea of co-habiting or can they free range tomorrow. Think I know what your answer will be - I don;t like to think that they are being confined but expect it will be for the best.

Many thanks

[kathyd]

Hi Gorsty. Difficult isn't it? I have a pecking problem here too, though for different reasons - we hatched some eggs, kept one girl and a cockerel. Cockerel decided he hated one of the older birds and was really aggressive with her, attacking until she bled and spent her days hiding in terror. Re-homed said cockerel somewhere they'll stand no nonsense from him, but now his sister (technically bottom of the hierarchy) has started to copy her bro and attack this poor bird again. So far I've separated her when I've seen her attack, but let them roam together the rest of the time, but they have the whole garden here with lots of places to run and hide and avoid each other. Where do yours free range? Can the 'victims' escape? If my bully continues, I'm afraid she'll go to a new home too - I'm not in this for the stress, I want to enjoy my birds, and I can't do that if I have to be on guard all the time. Have to say though, if it was one of my older birds which had become a bully it'd be more difficult, because I've had time to build more of a 'relationship' with them, although I do go off them when they start to hurt each other... So for now they live together, I keep an eye on them, I shut the naughty one in the duck shed if she gets vicious. She screams and shouts, and after a few hours I let her out again. I'm hoping against hope she'll make the link eventually... Good luck with yours, keep us informed of how it goes? xx

[Scarlet]

Sorry Gorsty, I didn't spot your reply last night...just wondering what you've done this morning?

What breed were your new chicks Kathy?

[Gorsty]

Hi - update

I left all hens "banged up" this morning - Newbies & Doris in one hen pen and Adele on her own and went off to work. MOH doesn't work Fridays and he heard such a commotion mid morning that he went to investigate. The Newbies were desperate to be let out and were shouting so he let them out - they went straight over to their own house and were trying to get in - they wanted to lay and no way were they going back to their new abode. He ended up putting the flap down on their old home so that Adele couldnt attack them and let them in to lay.

Once they had laid, he let everyone out to free range and Adele seemed quite laid back and didn't attack. All was well until this evening and Adele started on the Newbies again so she ended up being banged up on her own.

I have a feeling that this is going to be a lengthy process.

I'm wondering whether to pen an area off for her so she can't get to the newbies for a week or so and see how we go - what do you think. Alternatively I could move her to a different area of the garden but then she would be in solitary confinement.

Await to hear your thoughts

Kind regards

[kathyd]

What breed were your new chicks Kathy?

Cream Legbars - it's a shame really, she's not a 'bad' bird, quite sweet on the whole (apart from the awful raucous voice!!), but I can't break this habit of attacking this one older bird.

[Scarlet]

Gorsty, I'd pen her off but let her see them...I'd give her a good two weeks at least.

That's a shame Kathy, it's unusal for a young bird to be so aggressive.

[kathyd]

I know Scarlet, she's just mimicking exactly what her brother used to do - jumping on top of the victim bird and pecking her head.. she now has a bald patch! All the other birds just peck newbie and chase her off, but this bird has fallen into the role of victim and doesn't seem able to climb out of it.