older hens attacked my barred rock :(

[brig101508]

My older hens got to my little barred rock. She is definitely bottom of the pecking order.... is she just still too little to be with my other hens? Or will she always get beat up on like this? They have been fine and in the same coop for over a month now then I come out to this today. I gave her a warm bath and put her in a cardboard box and put in my quest bedroom where its dark and warm. Anything else I can do? I've read up on that blue wound stuff... should I use that? Any advice / suggestions are greatly appreciated. Thanks y'all.

 

[hennible]

How old is she? is her vent involved in the wound at all? No she won't necessarily always be the lowest in the pecking order but it might be tough to change her ranking... I would get the bluecoat unless you want to have her in the guest bedroom until that wound is well hidden again by feathers which could be a long time... You washed the wound that should be adequate, keep an eye out for infection... if you want you could use hydrogen peroxide or iodine or you could get an antibacterial ointment as long as it does not have any painkillers/numbing agents in it and put that on her wound... And before you reintroduce her make sure you have a way to keep her separated but in the site of your other hens.
Hello again and welcome to BYC again...

 

[Fly Right]

Poor girl. I hope she's alright. I would suggest also some type of antibiotic ointment like neosporin. Just make sure it doesn't have any "pain releif" in it. Blue-kote is fine too. Just keep it clean. Is she eating and drinking? That's very important.

 

[ThePRfan]

Be sureto clean it up,really good,and add Vaseline to the dry sore.

As for the blukote you only need it,unless you plan on integrating her back.

Now,I doubt they will attack her like this always.
Best is to isolate her in the coop,she has some of the coop yard,and the others have half.
This way,they can't touch,but can see.

I need her age.She looks to be a little young,maybe a year or younger?
If so,her adult attitude hasn't entered,and she still is becoming mature.
She is still learning to defend her self.

 

[brig101508]

Yes she is about 6 months. I will do everything y'all have suggest thank you guys ill keep u posted.

 

[66fastback]

Those women can be real mean to the new girl, hope you have the space to divide her out but so she can still back talk some smack.

 

[cafarmgirl]

To be honest, it may be very difficult to try to integrate this single bird back into the flock. Was she integrated with them before as a single new bird? That can be a very challenging situation and the problem is that now they have it in their head to attack her. Keep her separate for a good long time so she can heal up some. Sharing a fence line next to them is a good idea. Then maybe try putting one of the lowest ranking birds in with her and see how it goes. If they do ok then after a few days add one more from the other group. Go very slow and watch them like a hawk. It's possible you have an aggressive or bully bird who just happened to peck her and draw a bit of blood and then they all went after her. No matter what happened it's going to be a touchy situation so go slow.

Also, how many birds do you have and how big is their coop and run?

 

[brig101508]

I turned my old shed into the coop part then for the run I put an outside dog kennel.. . The big industrial sized one. I seperated my four oldest hens from my pullets for a day... went out and saw three of them plucking all the feathers out of my other chicken.... needless to say after seeing that I knew who the culprits were and they found themselves a new home on a two acre farm with pigs and goats and geese so on.... the one who got attacked real bad is doing great. Hopefully getting rid of those origional three hens will solve the issue. My others are all getting along fine. I have a grey austrolorp two barred rocks and two polish frizzles now. The three I got rid of were all sex links.

 

[ThePRfan]

I dont think there is a grey australoep..

 

[brig101508]

Got it from a feed store so its probably a bitsa anyway lol.