Bully chicken!

May 26, 2017
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Please help. I have a sliver laced Wyandotte who has been top hen (all my birds are about 7 months old). I recently got two new hens that are older; after sneaking them in and placing them in on the roost three days ago; the Wyandotte has started to mope around and slink away from the flock. One of my new hens (an Easter Egger) is bulling everyone except my roo. I think this has my Wyandotte depressed; she is eating and drinking but just doesn't seem herself. She started acting like this the next morning after I introduced the new hens. Should I remove the EE? The other new hen is a Maran and is a sweetheart and is getting along well with everyone. Another thing to mention; my new hens are the only ones laying.
 
Are you sure your EE is laying? Often hens become big meanies before laying. If she is already laying, I would consider re-homing her. Maybe remove her for a while and see how it all goes without her. If the Wyandotte seems happy and everyone returns to normal and then you put the EE back in and it returns to how terrible it was before, then maybe you should re-home the EE and save the stress.
 
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Are you sure your EE is laying? Often hens become big meanies before laying. If she is already laying, I would consider re-homing her. Maybe remove her for a while and see how it all goes without her. If the Wyandotte seems happy and everyone returns to normal and then you put the EE back in and it returns to how terrible it was before, then maybe you should re-home the EE and save the stress.
Yes, the EE is laying. The next day I had a beautiful blue egg! :) I thought about rehoming her.
 
Hello there and welcome to BYC! :frow

You really should introduce new birds slowly instead of sneaking them in over night. Chickens know each and every member in their flock and you will never pull a fast one on them by a night time sneak in. LOL

Keep the new birds separate from the original flock via a cage or fenced off area within the original flock at all times for a few weeks. Everybody sees, nobody touches. This allows everybody to get to know one another from behind a fence or wire. They truely need time to absorb the fact that new members are going to be joining. This also protects the original flock from disease. Should one of these new birds have a disease the last thing you want to do is infect the flock.

After a few weeks, you can mix them all together. Put out more food and water stations incase some starve out others (this is very common).

And remove bullies temporarily from the flock, not weaker birds. If they positively will not get along, use pinless peepers for a while.

Good luck and welcome to our roost! :)
 
What are pinless peepers?

I only use these as last resort if a bird is a bully and physically hurts others...

View media item 4937115
These don't hurt the bird however it keeps them from being able to direct their aggression forward at another bird. It takes them a few days to get used to eating and drinking with these on. It's not a cure all, but if you are seeing blood all over the place as I was, this was the only solution aside from putting her down.
 

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