3yo Australorp hen needs bigger flock - Chicago, Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana

maryn7

Songster
5 Years
Apr 29, 2020
356
522
211
NE Illinois
We moved a few months ago and brought our flock of five with us. While the other four are thrilled with the new digs, one of our girls – a 3-yo beautiful Australorp - hasn’t adjusted and is clearly unhappy here.

Our pecking order is kind of three at the top, one at the bottom, and our unhappy girl in the middle. Always been this way. She’s always disliked the lowest girl on the pecking order, but her bullying has gotten noticeably worse since the move. She doesn’t draw blood, but she’s just constantly focused on the bottom girl.

She’s also started some new, loud vocalizations that are very unlike her and seems to be just general frustration. She’s always been our quietest bird.

We think a big part of her stress is that - since it’s a small flock and there’s kind of a clumping at the top - there’s no one else that shares her flock status. We think she’s always worried the bottom girl is going to take her place (this absolutely will not happen, but try explaining that to a chicken).

We’ve had her since she was a day old, so it breaks my heart to think of her living with a different family, but we think it’d be best for her if we rehome her with a larger flock and perhaps more space.

She’s very friendly with people and gets along great with all the other chickens (except her nemesis). She’s a good layer of medium to large eggs, and has absolutely resplendent plumage – purple/green iridescent and kitten soft. Super cute dust bather - she gets the wing and all the neck feathers splayed out in the sun. She’s from Cackle Hatchery, and never had any health issues.

She’s free to a good home, I can drop her off to you within about 2hrs of Chicago, and we’ll even kick in some money to feed her since we’re coming up on molt and egg break season. But I’d ask that anyone interested tell me a bit about their flock and experience; she is family to us and we want to make sure she ends up somewhere she will be happier.

If you’ve got room for a very pretty girl who needs a change to live her best life, I’d love to talk more.

ps - full body photo is just the other day, the one where she's sitting on an arm is from her first year.
 

Attachments

  • 0250815_211007175~2.jpg
    0250815_211007175~2.jpg
    833.8 KB · Views: 27
  • 20220905_183621634_HDR~2.jpg
    20220905_183621634_HDR~2.jpg
    369.9 KB · Views: 10
We moved a few months ago and brought our flock of five with us. While the other four are thrilled with the new digs, one of our girls – a 3-yo beautiful Australorp - hasn’t adjusted and is clearly unhappy here.

Our pecking order is kind of three at the top, one at the bottom, and our unhappy girl in the middle. Always been this way. She’s always disliked the lowest girl on the pecking order, but her bullying has gotten noticeably worse since the move. She doesn’t draw blood, but she’s just constantly focused on the bottom girl.

She’s also started some new, loud vocalizations that are very unlike her and seems to be just general frustration. She’s always been our quietest bird.

We think a big part of her stress is that - since it’s a small flock and there’s kind of a clumping at the top - there’s no one else that shares her flock status. We think she’s always worried the bottom girl is going to take her place (this absolutely will not happen, but try explaining that to a chicken).

We’ve had her since she was a day old, so it breaks my heart to think of her living with a different family, but we think it’d be best for her if we rehome her with a larger flock and perhaps more space.

She’s very friendly with people and gets along great with all the other chickens (except her nemesis). She’s a good layer of medium to large eggs, and has absolutely resplendent plumage – purple/green iridescent and kitten soft. Super cute dust bather - she gets the wing and all the neck feathers splayed out in the sun. She’s from Cackle Hatchery, and never had any health issues.

She’s free to a good home, I can drop her off to you within about 2hrs of Chicago, and we’ll even kick in some money to feed her since we’re coming up on molt and egg break season. But I’d ask that anyone interested tell me a bit about their flock and experience; she is family to us and we want to make sure she ends up somewhere she will be happier.

If you’ve got room for a very pretty girl who needs a change to live her best life, I’d love to talk more.

ps - full body photo is just the other day, the one where she's sitting on an arm is from her first year.
Hello! We have a flock of 11. We are new to chickens and have raised 5 from eggs. They are still young 4-6 months old. And some are Roos that we will have to rehome. We live on acreage and plan to build a mobile run in addition to our run that’s attached to the coop. If you can wait a couple weeks to rehome her, we’d love to have her. We are in NW Indiana.
 
Hi - so sorry for the late reply; I got called out of town.

Thank you so much for this offer, but based on her needs and behavior we think she will do better with an older flock where experienced hens and/or a rooster can help her feel more confident (uh, or tell her to knock it off). We think part of the reason she picks on our bottom girl is because she kind of has a pullet shape (despite being a laying hen). But I really appreciate you making the offer and telling us about your flock!

Also I'll note for others - I couldn't edit the original post anymore - that she's used to a free-range in the yard situation. I don't know that she couldn't make the change to run life, but as a data point.
 
HI!!
I am in SE Wisco and i have a flock of 15(ish). One young rooster that has so far been very respectful of his ladies and has even accepted 2 new mature ones into the group with no problems (he broke up the first disagreement between girls and they have been fine since). Although my flock is fairly young, i have 6 hens of laying age, 4 pullets who should start laying any time now and 5 younger pullets that are a couple months away from laying and a young (oops) cockerel who may or may not stay depending on his attitude and willingness to be a gentleman. They all get along but they definitely group up among themselves. Most of them seem to be in the middle, one gal thinks she runs the place but she’s never gotten violent, shes just “sassy” as we say here in wisconsin.
I have a 400sq foot chicken yard and 2 coops for sleeping at night. The yard is surrounded by a 6 ft fence and they sleep in the coops every night but range in the chicken yard during the day. We are in the process of building a new coop as the smaller one we have is of poor quality and not sufficient for the number that crams themselves in at night regardless of availability of a larger coop. Currently, they are allowed to choose the coop they want to sleep in and the coop they prefer to lay in. That won’t change as i like the “2 coop system”.
If you think your gal would get along here, i am happy to arrange a meet up and show you my chicken hood.
 

New posts New threads Active threads

Back
Top Bottom