Companion for lonely chicken

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Orville

Orville

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May 1, 2016
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Can anyone advise, I have 6 chickens (warrens) but one has been not too good since purchasing. Eventually the others started attacking her so I isolated her and she is now kept separate. She has improved but when I try to re introduce her they attack her so she is now on her own. I would like to get her a companion but I'm worried another chicken would still attack her. Not sure if a duck would make a companion? or a more none aggressive
 
Hi and welcome to BYC
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Sometimes you will have one hen that starts the bullying. Removing her from the group when you try your reintroduction might help shake things up enough to allow her back in. Sometimes you end up with a hen that just gets pushed around a lot. If you have the room, you could separate her with just one of the other hens, and let them make friends before moving them back in with the others.

Lack of space can increase the risk of bullying. How big are your coop and run?
 
They have an 8 x 6 shed over night and are out in paddock/garden/field all day, wherever they want to wander really. She is sort of disabled, a bit wobbly and sometimes falls over, I think they just see her as weak. Shes now in her own shed and comes out when we are at home and goes out in an enclosed garden away from the others.
 
They attack her because she is not acting like a normal chicken, - she's wobbly and falls over, and attracts their bad attention. Unless she improves quite a bit, I wouldn't try putting her back with them. Could you make her a house pet? Usually they bloom when they are away from their tormentors. You may want to check out "People with house chickens," thread.
 
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You may very well have to keep her separated forever from the rest of the flock if she is permanently handicapped. You could do what we did with our "special needs" chicken...build her a small run and house of her own that is attached to the living quarters of the rest of the birds. That gave her a lot of company but because there was hardware cloth separating them, they could look but not touch each other.

Good luck!
 
I also have a "special needs" hen who gets bullied. Her sisters excluded her as chicks because she was clearly different - slight leg impairment, delays in feathering, kind of goofy and infantile behavior. I let the flock backyard free range, and she generally forages by herself, sometimes hangs distantly from the flock, or hangs out by the rooster who is in a kennel - they are friends. I will probably rehome the rooster and worry about her, but I figure it's better for her to have run of the yard with the distant social interactions, and I use multiple feeding stations and scattered treats.

I actually would love to rehome her with the rooster because she makes incredibly loud yelling noises early in the a.m.!! But I think that would be too harsh of a transition for her, unless it was a very special situation, such as with younger, newly introduced pullets where she might be able to establish some status. So I will probably have to continue dealing with the noise...
 
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