Ok everyone "Buffy" is healing pretty good. We had to finish the final winterization of the coop. So she went outside with me and was very happy. She has been in the house for a week. When my husband let the others out to free range while we finished up inside. Her own sister beat her up. I scooped her up quickly and checked her over. No major disaster. A few minutes later another hen took a few pecks at her. So I took her back in the house. Any ideas when she will be accepted again? Or did I push the issue to soon? The link below is what happen to Buffy in case your wondering. https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=20196 My other ??'s are This is our first winter. It's supposed to be one of our coldest nights. So for the very first time I locked the door up to the run. Well they flipped out. How long before they settle down? Sorry for the double ?'s but I always have a ton of them. Thanks, Ann
There are going to be pecking order issues with putting her back in the coop with the other hens...always a good idea to keep her in a separate wire cage in the coop for a few days to let them get use to seeing her again...then place her on the roost at night when its dark, usually by morning its feeding time and they forget a new one has joined the flock again... In winter I just lock up the run at night and open again in the mornings unless its very windy and in the teens...they should settle down in a few days if your just closing it for nights...
I was actually going to post the same questions today, so I thank you as well for the info. My family started freaking out today and it sounded like they were saying "Get over here, the chickens are eating on of the little ones" they actually said "beating" one of the little ones, so I had to explain the pecking order thing, but I was going to check and make sure what I was doing was alright too. A few more weeks they should all be about the same size and get along, I hope.