First post on here and its a long one....so please be patient. I hatched two hens and one Tom. They live with 5 chickens in a 8'x8' coop with a 8'x12' roofed run. One hen got a wounded foot (tore all the nail off down to bone). Then the Tom had the same happen. I put a trail cam on video setting to see what was going on. The next day one of the hens was seriously wounded with a huge knot on her head and her eye was swollen shut. One of her legs was hurt bad enough she couldnt use it. I immediately checked the camera and saw a fox running around the pen spooking them like crazy. She flew up and smashed her head on the roof of the coop. I isolated her in the coop and kept the Tom and healthy hen in the run. Chickens were kept in the run too until evening and we put them in a temporary crate with a low level roost to keep them comfy.
The wounded hen has regained use of her leg but is completely blind in her left eye. There is a pull string sliding door between the coop and the run, so I framed up some hardware cloth and screwed it over the slider door. I figured they would re-introduce themselves through the screen and no more harm would come to the wounded hen. The healthy hen immediately started fighting purrs and it was game on between the hens. The Tom then comes over to see whats going on, and the healthy hen starts fighting with him. Day two, I removed the screen and the wife and I stayed in the run and tried again. We had to physically hold them back from each other and keep the Tom (who is very spooky anyways) shooed away in the corner. After awhile of that, the Tom walked into the coop and didnt seem aggressive toward the wounded hen. A few pecks and that was about it (At this point I was in the coop supervising). The wounded hen out of no where just laid down in a submissive position and some subtle fighting purrs started so I shooed the Tom back out and closed the slider.
Sorry for all that, but I wanted to be thorough. Any ideas on what to do with the two hens??? Ive become very fond of the one eyed hen (and the other two). The poor girl wants outside in the run so bad. She just paces back and forth and yelps all day. BTW they were only separated for 3 1/2 weeks. Also they are not tame enough to touch (unless they are trying to kill each other, then they dont care)
Thanks for any help
The wounded hen has regained use of her leg but is completely blind in her left eye. There is a pull string sliding door between the coop and the run, so I framed up some hardware cloth and screwed it over the slider door. I figured they would re-introduce themselves through the screen and no more harm would come to the wounded hen. The healthy hen immediately started fighting purrs and it was game on between the hens. The Tom then comes over to see whats going on, and the healthy hen starts fighting with him. Day two, I removed the screen and the wife and I stayed in the run and tried again. We had to physically hold them back from each other and keep the Tom (who is very spooky anyways) shooed away in the corner. After awhile of that, the Tom walked into the coop and didnt seem aggressive toward the wounded hen. A few pecks and that was about it (At this point I was in the coop supervising). The wounded hen out of no where just laid down in a submissive position and some subtle fighting purrs started so I shooed the Tom back out and closed the slider.
Sorry for all that, but I wanted to be thorough. Any ideas on what to do with the two hens??? Ive become very fond of the one eyed hen (and the other two). The poor girl wants outside in the run so bad. She just paces back and forth and yelps all day. BTW they were only separated for 3 1/2 weeks. Also they are not tame enough to touch (unless they are trying to kill each other, then they dont care)
Thanks for any help
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