Bully pullet?

[asteria819]

Okay y’all I post here too much lol. You’re just a wealth of info!! I’m sorry, this is kinda long.

I have an almost 4 month old pullet who we integrated with our slightly younger two babies about a month ago. Everything went great then and no one was really mean to anyone.

So, recently we got a silkie mix that’s about 3.5 months or so. This baby is SO sweet and docile. She is also smaller since she has the bantam in her of course. We took it slow when introducing her because the previous owner said she got picked on a lot due to her size and how docile she is. We only allowed the other 3 to just see her/hear her and then finally brought them to her one at time, a day at a time to get acquainted until everyone was getting along with each other all at the same time. Everything was going great, the 4 month old was a little more dominant but that’s expected since she’s definitely at the top of this flock’s pecking order but she wasn’t causing harm to anyone. So we put all of them back outside in their normal coop and run and the 4 month old seriously has become the biggest bully to not only the silkie mix, but to one of the other girls who she previously had no issues with. She actively chases them and pecks them pretty hard. She was never doing this before the new girl.

Based on some stuff I googled, I tried separating her from them for a few days and it didn’t seem to work. When I put her back today she still made it a point to chase and peck them. I separated her from them again because I don’t want any injuries while unmonitored.

Tonight someone told me that separation can actually cause more problems, so I thought well, it’s bedtime, let me stick her in the coop since everyone is sleepy and I have read that that can be a way of integrating chickens. I checked about 10 minutes later and the 4 month old had the silkie backed into a corner! I noticed a very small amount of blood on the side of the bully’s beak. I didn’t see any cuts or wounds on the silkie or anyone else though. I feel like such a bad chicken momma!! I have since placed the bully back inside because everyone else looked fine after a thorough inspection and were just trying to sleep I don’t want to have to get rid of anyone. I know chickens can be harsh to eachother, but I really am not okay with the excessive bullying. Everyone else is perfectly nice to each other. Any solutions?? MUCH appreciated. This is long. Thank you for reading if you have made it this far lol

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

You need to slow down your integration. To a chicken any new chicken is an intruder and a possible enemy after their territory. It isn't about bullying, it's about defending their territory. Bringing in multiple birds who don't know each other is a challenge as most bonding is done within a clutch of chicks, than the chicks get accepted into the bigger flock. What you are doing is unnatural to the chickens. It can work. You just need to take it slow. You are basically waiting until the old ones forget the new ones were strangers.

I always keep any new ones to the flock penned separately for a few weeks at least so they become familiar through the fence first before starting supervised mingling.

Silkies in general are odd acting chickens sometimes and can attract pecking from other birds. They are best kept with other silkies for their own safety.

What breeds are the other ones, and how big is your set up? Definitely keep the new one separated for a while.

 

[aart]

Here's some tips about....

Integration Basics:
It's all about territory and resources(space/food/water).
Existing birds will almost always attack new ones to defend their resources.
Understanding chicken behaviors is essential to integrating new birds into your flock.

Confine new birds within sight but physically segregated from older/existing birds for several weeks, so they can see and get used to each other but not physically interact.

In adjacent runs, spread scratch grains along the dividing mesh, best if mesh is just big enough for birds to stick their head thru, so they get used to eating together.

The more space, the better. Birds will peck to establish dominance, the pecked bird needs space to get away. As long as there's no copious blood drawn and/or new bird is not trapped/pinned down and beaten unmercilessly, let them work it out. Every time you interfere or remove new birds, they'll have to start the pecking order thing all over again.

Multiple feed/water stations. Dominance issues are most often carried out over sustenance, more stations lessens the frequency of that issue.

Places for the new birds to hide 'out of line of sight'(but not a dead end trap) and/or up and away from any bully birds. Roosts, pallets or boards leaned up against walls or up on concrete blocks, old chairs tables, branches, logs, stumps out in the run can really help. Lots of diversion and places to 'hide' instead of bare wide open run.
Good ideas for hiding places:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/a-cluttered-run.1323792/

 

[Ridgerunner]

How much actual room do they have in feet, coop and run? I don't think that this is your only problem but it could be a contributing factor.

I find that maturity has a lot to do with it. More mature chickens tend to bully less mature chickens. With my flock different age groups tend to form sub-flocks until they all reach maturity because of this. Maturity with my pullets is typically about when they start to lay. Since you only have one she can't form a sub-flock and may want to be with the others for company. That's one reason it's harder to integrate a single chicken.

How sure are you that the Silkie is female? Silkies can be hard to sex. Sometimes a female can be brutal to an immature male.

I've had a chicken form an intense hatred for another specific chicken. This was two cockerels out of 19 cockerels around 4 months old. One actually killed the other but did not have any real issues with any of the others. I have no idea why. The others did not bother that cockerel, just the one that killed it.

With what you've tried I'd suggest you house that Silkie separate from the bully, possibly until the Silkie starts laying and across wire so they can see each other. Then try again. You can try putting one of the others with each of them for company, keep the Silkie by itself, or keep the bully by herself. I don't know if this will work. At some point you may need to make this separation permanent or decide for the peace of your overall flock to get rid of one of them.


It's not always this hard, it really isn't. But sometimes it is. I feel for you.

 

[asteria819]

You need to slow down your integration. To a chicken any new chicken is an intruder and a possible enemy after their territory. It isn't about bullying, it's about defending their territory. Bringing in multiple birds who don't know each other is a challenge as most bonding is done within a clutch of chicks, than the chicks get accepted into the bigger flock. What you are doing is unnatural to the chickens. It can work. You just need to take it slow. You are basically waiting until the old ones forget the new ones were strangers.

I always keep any new ones to the flock penned separately for a few weeks at least so they become familiar through the fence first before starting supervised mingling.

Silkies in general are odd acting chickens sometimes and can attract pecking from other birds. They are best kept with other silkies for their own safety.

What breeds are the other ones, and how big is your set up? Definitely keep the new one separated for a while.

Sorry for just now responding! So we have 4 of this younger flock. 2 of them we got as chicks together: Speckled Sussex and Ameraucana/EE and they get along perfectly of course. Then we added a Prairie Bluebell Egger (Bully), and she integrated quite perfectly with the other two despite being a few weeks older and a bit bigger, no bullying issues. Then we added the Silkie mix and all hell broke loose, lol. I do think the run may be too small. We are in the process of building another.

We have not yet introduced these younger girls to our bigger, older flock since that would probably just be disastrous, but they are next door to each other, just separated with fencing/hardware cloth so they know each other. We usually let the older flock free-range. Since this post, we have instead been letting the younger girls free-range together, and there haven't been really as many issues since the Silkie has more room to run. The Prairie Bluebell still chases after her on occasion though, but it's nothing like what it was. Have for sure been keeping the Silkie separated at night. Thank you so much for responding!!

 

[asteria819]

How much actual room do they have in feet, coop and run? I don't think that this is your only problem but it could be a contributing factor.

I find that maturity has a lot to do with it. More mature chickens tend to bully less mature chickens. With my flock different age groups tend to form sub-flocks until they all reach maturity because of this. Maturity with my pullets is typically about when they start to lay. Since you only have one she can't form a sub-flock and may want to be with the others for company. That's one reason it's harder to integrate a single chicken.

How sure are you that the Silkie is female? Silkies can be hard to sex. Sometimes a female can be brutal to an immature male.

I've had a chicken form an intense hatred for another specific chicken. This was two cockerels out of 19 cockerels around 4 months old. One actually killed the other but did not have any real issues with any of the others. I have no idea why. The others did not bother that cockerel, just the one that killed it.

With what you've tried I'd suggest you house that Silkie separate from the bully, possibly until the Silkie starts laying and across wire so they can see each other. Then try again. You can try putting one of the others with each of them for company, keep the Silkie by itself, or keep the bully by herself. I don't know if this will work. At some point you may need to make this separation permanent or decide for the peace of your overall flock to get rid of one of them.


It's not always this hard, it really isn't. But sometimes it is. I feel for you.

I really couldn't tell you in feet how big the current run is, but it has worked for us in the past with 4 chickens with no issues, but there weren't any introductions at that point since those girls grew up together. We are building a bigger, new run.

Maturity though, I do think the Silkie is not as mature as the bully for sure. She's pretty goofy if I'm being honest haha. We are not 100% if the Silkie is a female. The breeder wasn't sure either even at 3+ months old. We were told she/he was mixed with Cochin, but honestly the colors that this bird displays is more consistent with an EE. There are sort of pointed feathers as well as rounded feathers and it's just confusing. The comb/wattles are just now starting to grow and are on their way to turning red. Guess we will find out when it starts to crow, LOL. Thank you for your response!!! Trying to work this out. We let them free-range (we have an older flock that usually free-ranges but we turned the tables the last few days and let the younger girls go out and the problems have minimized so size of the run is probably an issue since she has space to run away.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Sorry for just now responding! So we have 4 of this younger flock. 2 of them we got as chicks together: Speckled Sussex and Ameraucana/EE and they get along perfectly of course. Then we added a Prairie Bluebell Egger (Bully), and she integrated quite perfectly with the other two despite being a few weeks older and a bit bigger, no bullying issues. Then we added the Silkie mix and all hell broke loose, lol. I do think the run may be too small. We are in the process of building another.

We have not yet introduced these younger girls to our bigger, older flock since that would probably just be disastrous, but they are next door to each other, just separated with fencing/hardware cloth so they know each other. We usually let the older flock free-range. Since this post, we have instead been letting the younger girls free-range together, and there haven't been really as many issues since the Silkie has more room to run. The Prairie Bluebell still chases after her on occasion though, but it's nothing like what it was. Have for sure been keeping the Silkie separated at night. Thank you so much for responding!!

It's good to hear giving them room to run has helped. Like in every critter, a tired critter is a better behaved critter. Hopefully it continues to improve over time. I always take my time. I unfortunately learned my lesson the hard way about rushing an integration.

 

[Folly's place]

I think that Silkies are fragile little guys, and introducing only one would be very difficult. IMO it's best to have several, or none, and have them in separate housing.
Mary

 

[Ridgerunner]

We are not 100% if the Silkie is a female. The breeder wasn't sure either even at 3+ months old.

I don't do well sexing Silkies at all but some people on here maybe can. If you post a photo of the bird's head showing comb and wattles as best you can and a second photo showing the profile, mainly legs, posture, and body shape. Then maybe a close-up if you can get it to focus of the saddle and hackle feathers. If they are sharp instead of rounded it could be a sign of a boy.

 

[asteria819]

I don't do well sexing Silkies at all but some people on here maybe can. If you post a photo of the bird's head showing comb and wattles as best you can and a second photo showing the profile, mainly legs, posture, and body shape. Then maybe a close-up if you can get it to focus of the saddle and hackle feathers. If they are sharp instead of rounded it could be a sign of a boy.

I would post pictures if I wasn’t afraid of everyone telling me it’s a rooster I will upload some because truly regardless of sex, it’s a beautiful bird. Also, excellent news, everyone is getting along now!!! The former bully and the silkie have been sleeping NEXT TO EACH OTHER on the roost at night!! I almost fell out when I saw that. Crazy birds.