Reintroduce chicken back to flock.

[jelibn1980]

My polish was attacked by a hawk and thankfully survived. It's been 7 days and I put her back out with the flock. (I only have 6 total, all hens). They won't stop chasing and pecking her. She's been hiding up on the roost and they won't even let her down to eat or drink. What can I do? I don't want her to die of not eating and drinking when she survived an awful injury already. My setup doesn't really give me options to do a look but don't touch thing... And id hate for her to sleep out in the open of the run instead of inside.
Pic of my setup and pic of my camera where she's hiding up top away from everyone.

Help!!

 

[Sally PB]

Go to TSC or a pet supply store and get an extra large dog crate. Probably be close to $100. You can set this up in the run. Put something solid over the top so that when the other chickens get up there, they can't poop on her.

 

[Sally PB]

Sorry, I hit post before I finished. Where are you located?

Ok, it doesn't look like an xl crate would fit easily in your coop. You said you don't want her to sleep out in the run. If you can surround the crate with cardboard at night, she should be fine, unless you're getting into single digits F at night. If you do this, be sure to leave some openings at the the top of the side of the crate for ventilation. In other words, you don't want it to be air tight, as her warm breath and the ammonia from her poop need to escape, and both rise.

 

[EggSighted4Life]

What can I do?

Pecking order can be quite brutal and is serious business and she lost her place in the pecking order and everybody wants to make sure she knows it, especially those that may have previously been lower than her.. That's why total separation is not usually recommended.. but rather a look but don't touch (dog rate) set up as suggested by the first poster.. This will be required for reintegration at this point.

You may clutter the place up a bit or switch some things around to disrupt the usual flow of things.. put up some line of sight blocks.. hanging towels, toppled chairs, etc.. add more temporary feeders/waterers.. maybe make special times to pull her out and make sure she's had her fill of feed and water.

So glad she survived the hawk encounter. Hope she gets settled back in quickly!