Bullying issues seem better today

[chknlittle17]

Karen, my only Polish (but not the smallest pullet), was bullied pretty badly when I started repairs on their run after multiple tries by a family of raccoons to get in. We removed her to a large dog crate on our enclosed porch to heal- her flockmates ripped a lot of her feathers out and bloodied her head. She has been separate for a week and then spent three days with the crate in the run for her to roost at night, but spent the day in the coop by herself.

After more than a week separate, Karen finally roosted with the others last night. We actually planned to keep her separate, but she insisted by getting into the far corner of the coop where we could not reach. Her wounds are all healed at this point and I gave her a new "hairdo" so she could see better. She's out with them now and aside from some pecking and minor chases, all seems fine. I am watching them through our camera system throughout the day and will only intervene if it is bad. The pecking order seems pretty shaken up right now haha.

Our coop is 36"x 84"and it does have some issues we need to fix asap- the roosting bars suck and most of the flock (7) will not use them. I plan to add 2-3 more if I can fit them at 2 different heights. This coop is temporary, we'll have to build a larger one in the next 2 months so we can integrate the 8 chicks we have in the brooders. The run is 9' by 18' and is mostly open space. We started adding in stuff like branches, wood, bins on their sides to break up the space some. We also moved the coop so that there is a space behind it that the 3 smaller chickens can pass through with food/water dishes in a hidden spot back there.

Any other advice for things to put into the coop to keep the chickens busy that I can make from crap laying around my house? I saw the post showing the "cluttered coop" and started adding to mine so that there is more distraction. We don't really have much in the way of leftover wood hanging around the house, but do have some stumps and lots of branches

 

[Chickeng1rl567]

You can buy little chicken toys for them, or make them at home, then fill them with treats. It also helps to have areas where Karen can hide from the others and/or perches where she is out of reach.

 

[chknlittle17]

You can buy little chicken toys for them, or make them at home, then fill them with treats. It also helps to have areas where Karen can hide from the others and/or perches where she is out of reach.

Karen has an area behind the coop and crate that most of the chickens cannot get to. We do need to add some more perches, just have to find some materials to make them out of. Right now they only have 2 perching spots. I had my daughter toss another bin into the run blocking the view of one of the water troughs as a movable wall type feature. Doing this stopped some of the chasing I was seeing.

 

[rosemarythyme]

For clutter, you can cobble the branches together into a jungle gym, I've seen versions on here that are just random branches nailed or screwed or tied together.

Cutting back her head feathers probably helped a lot with picking issues too, since it takes away the "different" part of her that other birds were homing in on plus gives her better vision so she can run away if needed.