I have three batches of chickens. My original flock are all adults. then I have 9 (it was 12 but I have managed to place 3 roos!) "teenagers" who are about 15 weeks old. then I have 6 preteens (7 weeks old). the teenagers, from day one, when they were a week old, were in the coop with the adults separated with chicken wire so they all "knew" each other in a sense so when I put the teenagers in with the adults, it was o.k. my preteens have been in the cellar until today when I cleaned up the teenagers area and moved the preteens out there. the problem is, one of the teenagers, who is very small, about the size of the preteens, is the scapegoat and a couple of weeks ago got injured quite badly (I got great guidance here on BYC!
) and she has been here in the house in a crate. My husband wants to keep her in the house and I told him, I had enough to do without changing chicken diapers
! anyway, two days ago I put Audrey (the little one) in the coop in her crate and in her own area outdoors during the day where everyone could see everyone else. Every once in a while I try putting her in with the general population and all is well for a few minutes until they discover that spot by her tail that is still ugly but healing quite well and then the fun begins, but not for Audrey
! So I take her out and isolate her again. This has been going on for about three days. Oh also, I thought maybe I could put her in with the preteens because they are about the same size, except Audrey started chasing the preteens around and terrorizing them! We both love Audrey
and will not rehome her. Does anyone have any words of wisdom? Does she just need to stay in the crate in the coop longer? She hates it BTW. I feel so bad for her!
