Seeking advice on re-integrating chicken after being separated from flock due to injury

[AspenChicken]

Hi!

My girl Tiffy (lavender orpington) was stuck in a fence and injured badly/pecked at by our rooster Carol (who has since been re-homed) two weeks ago. She had surgery and was recovering in the house afterwards. The vet told us she was good to go back with the other girls after she had her sutures out. The other girls are a welsummer, wyandotte and a speckled sussex. Everyone is 17 weeks old.

Tiffy has healed up nicely but she has a lot of pinfeathers on her neck. I don't know if part of the issue is these pinfeathers since she looks different.

When we reintroduced Tiffy it didn't go well. There was some normal looking pecking order stuff happening but our speckled sussex pecked her neck hard and broke one of her pinfeathers. She also got pecked hard on the head leaving a cut next to her comb. We brought her back in since it wasn't going well.

She has been out a few more times with supervision and the girls totally ignore her, and when they don't she is scared of them and they aren't nice to her, they peck at her hard, she's got more missing feathers and a cut by her beak. The speckled sussex really has it out for her the most and will seek her out to attack, but the others have been aggressive too.

Tiffy is bigger than the speckled sussex but she doesn't fight back and you can tell she is scared of the situation.

I'm not sure what to do. We raised them all together as baby chicks and they used to get along ok. Tiffy and the rooster did spend a lot of time together before we had to re-home him and I am wondering if he protected her from the other girls.

Does anyone have any advice on what to do? I'm worried for Tiffy's safety and that they might never accept her and she'll be lonely. The breeder we got them from has 8 week pullets for sale, would it be a good/bad idea to get some younger chickens to be friends with Tiffy and introduce them as a group? I realize this could make things more complicated if Tiffy decides to bully them!

As it stands now Tiffy is still inside per the vet's suggestion until after the cold front passes, but then I don't know what we should do, she can't be a house chicken forever!

 

[azygous]

Your Tiffy is a classic case of bullying victim syndrome which began with her being segregated to recover from her injury. Without daily reinforcement of her rank in the social order, she lost both her rank and her self confidence. Yes. Chicken psychology is a real thing.

This is how you can get Tiffy back into her social group again. https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/chicken-bully-chicken-victim-a-two-sided-issue.73923/

And I think you already know that getting new chicks will only complicate the issue because almost always the bullying victim will turn right around and bully the smaller newcomers.

 

[AspenChicken]

Your Tiffy is a classic case of bullying victim syndrome which began with her being segregated to recover from her injury. Without daily reinforcement of her rank in the social order, she lost both her rank and her self confidence. Yes. Chicken psychology is a real thing.

This is how you can get Tiffy back into her social group again. https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/chicken-bully-chicken-victim-a-two-sided-issue.73923/

And I think you already know that getting new chicks will only complicate the issue because almost always the bullying victim will turn right around and bully the smaller newcomers.

Thank you for the article! This is my first time having chickens so I thought maybe since Tiffy was so docile that she wouldn't bully newcomers. I didn't know about chicken self esteem, thats really interesting. And thanks for letting me know that no, it is not a good idea to get her some young companions!

 

[Mrs. K]

Thing is being raised together has no long term effect on chickens, and according to the flock you are introducing a total stranger that might eat up all the feed. They defend.

And chickens hate anything strange, and the coop she was raised in, is now a strange place to her.

A lot depends on your set up, and how much space you have. But this has worked for me. Let the three girls outside into your yard. Lock the victim in the coop/run all day. The outside birds should tend to hang around the coop. Feed along the fence line, so they are kind of eating together. Remover her that night, let the others back in. Repeat the next day. This gives her some confidence in the territory for her.

Day 3, pick one of the birds to stay inside the coop/run with her. Not the bully, but one of the others. There will be a dust up, but it should not be too bad, as it is one to one, not three to one. Repeat this 3-4 days, until you are confident that they are fine together.

Now let all 4 out together in the yard. If the bully is still attacking, lock the bully in a dog crate, or put the bully wherever you kept the sick bird in the house. Often times you will have one bird that attacks, and the others follow along. The other three should be ok.

Let them roost together in the coop. Keeping the bully out for a night or two, then after dark, slip the bully into the coop. and keep a close eye out the next day.

It is a lot of fiddling around, but in a week it will work.

Mrs K

 

[AspenChicken]

Thing is being raised together has no long term effect on chickens, and according to the flock you are introducing a total stranger that might eat up all the feed. They defend.

And chickens hate anything strange, and the coop she was raised in, is now a strange place to her.

A lot depends on your set up, and how much space you have. But this has worked for me. Let the three girls outside into your yard. Lock the victim in the coop/run all day. The outside birds should tend to hang around the coop. Feed along the fence line, so they are kind of eating together. Remover her that night, let the others back in. Repeat the next day. This gives her some confidence in the territory for her.

Day 3, pick one of the birds to stay inside the coop/run with her. Not the bully, but one of the others. There will be a dust up, but it should not be too bad, as it is one to one, not three to one. Repeat this 3-4 days, until you are confident that they are fine together.

Now let all 4 out together in the yard. If the bully is still attacking, lock the bully in a dog crate, or put the bully wherever you kept the sick bird in the house. Often times you will have one bird that attacks, and the others follow along. The other three should be ok.

Let them roost together in the coop. Keeping the bully out for a night or two, then after dark, slip the bully into the coop. and keep a close eye out the next day.

It is a lot of fiddling around, but in a week it will work.

Mrs K

Thanks so much for the detailed protocol. This will work well with my set up. I am going to try it out once the weather normalizes a bit. I really appreciate the advice.

 

[Mother-Hen-Michele]

That is a super interesting protocol! You are giving the girl who was excluded a chance to claim territory, and then the regular 'squad' comes into her space. Very nicely thought out. You must have been an awesome grade school teacher or would have been!

 

[Mrs. K]

Thank you for the compliment, I currently teach 7th and 8th grade in a rural school.

 

[Mother-Hen-Michele]

Thank you for the compliment, I currently teach 7th and 8th grade in a rural school.

I knew it! *giggling w delight*

 

[Caronlb]

Thank you for the article! This is my first time having chickens so I thought maybe since Tiffy was so docile that she wouldn't bully newcomers. I didn't know about chicken self esteem, thats really interesting. And thanks for letting me know that no, it is not a good idea to get her some young companions!

I am no expert so I dont want to contradict the expert - but I did successfully get three youngsters for my hen that was rejected by her old flock mates. it took a few days of managed integration but she was then king pin and seemed way more confident when the others were around her. we managed to merge all the flocks after a summer together free ranging in the garden before flu restrictions have required adjustments.