Bullying in Three-Hen Flock: What to do?

[rosemarythyme]

Sadly, no.

Best you can do then is try to add even more clutter (or more solid/opaque clutter) to break up the space visually, so she can slide by without the bully seeing her as that's another way to break up/prevent chases.

Do NOT add more birds, it won't fix anything and will likely cause even more issues as every additional bird increases the need for additional space.

 

[Nika B]

Will do. Thanks for the help.

That's what I have heard. Sounds good. Does the farm in the winter sound like a good plan or like it would just add more stress?

 

[rosemarythyme]

Does the farm in the winter sound like a good plan or like it would just add more stress?

Personally I wouldn't do it, for 2 reasons:
1) Integration takes more space than the minimum recommendations... you're already having behavioral issues due to space/width of the set up, so trying to add/re-add birds could worsen it even more.
2) There's the possibility of introducing infectious diseases or parasites from bringing in outside birds (which would include a bird that has left your care before coming back in). Doing a proper biological quarantine to prevent that is time consuming and would require a completely separate set up for the duration of the quarantine period.

 

[NatJ]

Also, sorry for the previous errors in math, I was going off of rough estimations. I then went out there with a tape measure and looked at the plans, clearly, I had underestimated the coop size .

Measuring is always best, but at least you were wrong in the right direction

We kept asking for measurements, because it's pretty common for people to mis-estimate the other way (so their chickens have even less space than they think.)

 

[Crazy Maizie]

Do NOT add more birds, it won't fix anything and will likely cause even more issues as every additional bird increases the need for additional space.

I only suggested that because she's been working so hard on this for weeks - sometimes the opposite of what we try works. Also, I wouldn't ever suggest adding only 1 chicken. I added a lone cockerel once. It worked for us, but most likely because it was adding a male and not a female.
But, you're correct if the space is causing issues, it needs fixed first.

 

[Nika B]

Sorry for the lack of updates, but here is a final summary! Thank you all for the help again.

We kept the bully separated for an additional three weeks, and then did a week of daily supervised interaction in a very open, neutral, and full of distractions area, but kept them sleeping apart. There were some scuffles, but the victim was always able to escape and they resolved pretty quickly.

After that week and seeing that they were seeming to get along better, we put them back into the coop together during the day, unsupervised. This went fine, though I'm sure there were also some scuffles.

After that week, we went back to normal, and they did just fine! They are now back to being friendly and were frequently found sleeping huddled together during the winter. I would strongly recommend this re-integration plan to anyone dealing with a similar issue! It worked very well for me.