Hen being picked on

Hi All!..Just to let everyone know, that I did seperate the one hen, and she is fine. Looks, like I have a pet chicken know...lol...I have decided to build her own little coop, and I have named her Bella. I have high hopes of her feathers growing back. Thanks for everything...I now have chicken fever...lol

This is an unorthadox method but it worked for me.

I found that my hen pecked chicken used to be the strongest, she got an injured foot which bled and suddenly she was victimised.I treated the wound with TCP which is a wound disinfectant. It has a rather strong and long lasting odor, people often joke it has a nuclear half life on smell.

At any rate they soon left her alone probably because of the smell.

I started putting a drop on the necks of all my chickens and now they leave each other alone.

It won't harm them in any way. TCP is digestable in humans. It hasn't affected there egg laying all though they all now smell like a hospital ward.

Hope it helps

Avianator

I have found that chickens are incredibly resilient! The chicken you are asking about is most likely the least dominant. She will not mind being separated because she can heal without the stress of the others and there is no competition for food. In a week or two you should be able to put her back into the coop.

Don't be alarmed, when she is reintroduced- other chickens will chase and might peck at her a bit but they will most likely leave her alone after that.

If they don't leave her alone, you might consider putting in another feeder so that everyone can spread out more without fighting over food. Or your coop could be too small for the number of chickens you have?

Also, are you curtain you have all females? Too many roosters can do a number on the ladies as well.

There are lots of causes, but most likely if you separate her, allow her to heal and fatten-up a bit, you will be able to reintroduce her to the group. Also, you have to remember, these are chickens. They are not stupid, but they are not terribly bright either. I think when you separate the abused chicken, they get out of the habit of picking on her. You will interrupt the cycle. If that makes any sense.

Good Luck!
~Emily

I realize this was originally posted almost 6 years ago but for information sake I'll add what we did. Our SLW was picked on horribly by the chickens at her previous house which is why we agreed to rescue her. She did ok with the new group up until she bruised her foot. I had to go out into the run and bat the other chickens away from her as they had her pinned down and were in the process of pecking her to death. That was a few months ago. She's been in the house in a crate since then and has done worlds better. She can walk fine and has finally started to get some feathers back. All of her wounds are healed. I built a separate coop and run just for her (we'll use it as the quarantine area when we get new ones or if anyone else gets injured) and now she's outside within sight of her former flock mates. Once she's fully feathered she'll be reintroduced to the flock with supervision.


RichnSteph