Underdog hen left out

[Petra Pancake]

About a month ago I combined two pairs of hens into a small 4-chicken flock. They could see each other through wire some time before and there wasn't much aggression when they were united. They are 2 smallish Baladi hens and 2 Leghorn hybrids. The Leghorns immediately took command, being No. 1 and 2 of the flock. Next in the pecking order came the younger one of the Baladi hens. She gets along fine with the Leghorns. But the older Baladi hen was and is terrified of the Leghorns. She stays away from them and keeps to the corners of the coop and run. At feeding time, the other 3 cluster around the food and she stays far away, making sad little noises. I have never seen the Leghorns attack her viciously, just sometimes ordinary pecks. But she's totally afraid of them. Last year, she was my top hen in a different flock. She lost a clutch of chicks to predators and since then already she seemed subdued and lost her confidence. What should I do about the situation?

 

[azygous]

You've just hit on the issue - she has lost her confidence. You need to help her get it back.

The social structure of a flock is always changing, but when you add new chickens, it stresses out everyone. Sometimes it overwhelms an individual, and the chicken withdraws from the flock to avoid the conflict.

To convince the chicken she is worthy of rejoining the flock, you need to give her a safe place where she can be in the flock while not needing to engage in any confrontations. I have a "jail" as part of the run where such a chicken can have a vacation from the pecking order.

Recently the inhabitant was a seven-year old Sussex hen who was getting chased and beat up by the youngest flock members. At first, she would spend all day in the jail with her own food and water while roosting at night with the others. This assured her of getting enough to eat to keep up her strength while she slowly got her confidence back.

To reinforce her recovery, I then had her spend short periods out of the jail to start learning how to cope with the flock social order again. These periods gradually lengthened until she was spending most of the time back with the flock again. She's now fully functioning again in the flock.

This strategy has worked every single time to encourage a timid chicken to rejoin the pecking order.

 

[aart]

Maybe just set out a separate feeder?

I have an underdog right now, older bird molting in winter, not really getting picked on but definitely avoiding the flock and very skittish. It was worse when they were mostly confined to the coop during cold and lots of snow a couple weeks ago. Now that they are going back outside first thing in the morning, she hangs back in the coop while I clean. I've started putting out some scratch and feed in one of the small dish feeders for her, and she really goes at it and is getting calmer around me waiting for that 'treat'. Has 'bulked' her up, her feathers are coming back in more, and she's much more active amongst the flock.

As I've done this I've often thought of @azygous 's advice above, tho I didn't separate her(that can have it's own problems, depending on setup), I did give her some extra 'attention' and made sure she was getting some feed. Combo of molt passing and getting to eat/drink without competition has bolstered her demeanor.

 

[sourland]

Multiple feeding stations and space to avoid the others are great starting points.

 

[Petra Pancake]

Thanks for your replies. I had already started giving her food in a separate corner after feeding the others, to make sure she gets enough. Just wasn't sure if that's the right thing or turns her even more into a loner. Separating her isn't very practical in my setup - though I could keep her in a big dog cage in the run. Only, all my chickens hate being in that dog cage - some had to be in it in the past for various reasons, injury, quarantine etc. I'll continue giving her extra food in the meantime.
If that doesn't work, maybe the cage.
Or should I try to put her together with the nicer one of the 2 Leghorns as a new pair, to make her lose her fear of the "white giants"? (But then I'm back to pairs again, I wanted them all to be one flock.)

 

[lazy gardener]

An other option might be to shake up the flock dynamics again: You had 2 coops. Try putting your little wall flower in a coop with one of the leghorns (I might even try it with the top dog. And I might try putting them out of sight of the other two for a couple of weeks. Give these 2 time to bond, then do a slow re-introduction of the other two.

 

[aart]

There will always be a low bird...
...it's just more apparent and troublesome when flock is that small.
Separating is troublesome too, is the crate the only separate enclosure you can use?
How big is the crate and your set up....pics would help a great deal.

Sometimes if you mix and match (chicken juggling) by putting birds in a separate space, not for long but keep mixing up who is where and with whom every couple hours, it can shake things up enough for them to be glad to all be together again in their main housing.