Bully Chicken -- What would you do?

[kimchick621]

I can for a little while...maybe watch from the window, and I do. They get out about an hour or so a day.

 

[kimchick621]

Did you raise these three from baby chicks? Even if they were obtained as partly grown, you could introduce them to the coop as some of us do with six-week olds. After you've seen that the grown hens have finished laying for the day, place the three in the coop and shut it so they can't get out and no one else can enter. Have food and water inside for them.

You will probably need to referee roosting time, but it may not turn out to be as awful as you anticipate. It will help greatly if you keep the rest of the flock from entering until just before it gets too dark to see real well. This will minimize the length of time you'll have to supervise. They should all settle in as soon as it's too dark to see. Help the three newbies to get onto a perch, well away from the others if possible.

Next morning, they'll all leave the coop on their own. Remove the cage the day before so the three newbies will start to learn not to be dependent on it. Set up a separate feeder as I advised. Fence it off if you can. Leave them in the enclosure all day, and an hour or two before sunset, place the three in the coop and shut the rest out until the last minute as you did the first night.

Repeat this procedure for at least three nights, or four or five, until they learn the coop is home and it's where they can sleep safely at night. Meanwhile, if the nest boxes are in the coop, they'll be exploring them, and they'll know where to lay when that blessed day arrives.

I did raise these from babies. I will try what you suggested. I didn't think this would be such an ordeal getting these babies into the coop. Never have I had such an issue getting them to adjust.

Thanks so much for the advice.

 

[azygous]

Unless baby chicks are raised in the coop, they don't automatically think of it as "home". You have to "program" them to accept it. Just moving them into the run and keeping a cage there for them to find refuge in, isn't enough to get them to notice that the coop is where they should be sleeping at night.

Your three have fixated on their cage as "home" and safety at night. They will never adapt to the coop as long as the cage is still there. You have to remove it all together.

Whether you're introducing adopted adult chickens you've just acquired or merging recently feathered out chicks, the process is exactly the same - getting them to fixate on their new dwelling as home and safety. You can only do it by closing them up in it until they get used to it.

I've used this method with both adult chickens and chicks as young as five weeks. It works very well, and doesn't take but a few days for them to call the coop home.

 

[kimchick621]

Thank you! I took the cage out today, and so far it's made a big difference. They aren't hiding all day, and are out interacting with the other chickens. My bully seems to have a touch of frost bite on her feet, so she's been removed from the coop and put in the garage with her baby while she mends. Maybe it's good timing to let these new ones get used to the coop while she's not out there.

Thanks again