The chickens are still not happy. One of them in particular. In short, the old chickens haven’t yet forgiven us for bringing home three newcomers. Rather than taking it out on us, though, they’re blaming the invaders.
Two of them are half way to being accepted, but one poor chook, the smallest of the three, is being pecked to bits. It’s lost the feathers from the middle of it’s tail, its wattles and one ankle are bleeding and now its face is turning blue as the bruises come out.
We’re trying all we can: we’re sectioning them off, shutting the old ones in early in the evenings, lifting the new ones out of the house when they take refuge… for that one poor little pecked chicken none of it seems to be working, and now I’m starting to worry that it’s not getting to eat or drink unless we’re standing beside it.
How can we teach it to peck back? Just once?
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{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi, I’ve seen it suggested that if you change the pecking order temporally it can sometimes stop this kind of bullying. This would work better if there was only one bully, and if you have a second area of the coop.
If you take the bully out of the flock, even for a couple of days or so, and then reintroduce her later, she will have lost her place and will have to defend it, rather than bully the nOOb.
I’m fairly sure I lost one new girl to bullying, she went downhill so suddenly after we got her, and it isn’t a nice feeling. A nicer solution would be to ask if you could give that girl back – most chicken people are open to that suggestion – perhaps she just will never fit in.
Susan
Funnily enough, we’d had a similar idea, Susan. We were planning on splitting off one third of the compound for the three new ones and putting in one of the old chickens with them so that the balance is reversed. After a few days we’d add another one of the older chickens and so on so that each is introduced individually, hopefully giving the new chickens a chance to sort themselves out one chicken at a time.
Keep us updated on how that works! I’m going to build myself a coop this summer and get chicks in the Spring. I thought I’d start with 3 and add a couple/few more later, but hearing what you’ve gone through this time makes me a bit nervous…
Hello, we have had the same problem! about 2 months ago we came home with a light sussex, we already had 3 brown hybrid chickens and they did not like her. we found that putting her with the least dominant chicken for a few days ( in a seperate pen) stopped that chicken from bullying her. also what worked was putting the old 3 into another smaller pen and the light sussex in the bigger pen, and gradually introducing the 3 back into the bigger pen. now only one has a slight dislike for it but they seem to scratch and eat fine together. I also advise that you put a few perches around the coop as this will give the newbies a place to “escape” from the mayhen…