Chicken being bullied by flock after injury

[kimanndurr]

Hi all,

One of our sweet chickens was attacked by a fox in November and survived, but most of her feathers were pulled out on her backside. This trauma sent her into a heavy molt and it has taken months for her to refeather. Unfortunately, in addition to this, the flock of 6 has been bullying her as well and have been tearing the feathers she does have (she was a fairly new addition at the time of the attack and being reintroduced after healing has made things worse).

I am really concerned for her well-being and want to separate her so she can rest and finish her molt, but am very worried about reintroducing her again. Is it better to just separate part of the day to let her rest and recoup? Will the bullying stop once her feathers have grown back in?

About our setup: We don’t have enough room to keep her in a separate run and unfortunately we have 2 feet of snow, so they don’t have a lot of area to free range outside of the run at the moment.

Any help would be appreciated! This community is amazing and has helped me through many chicken and duck crises. Thank you!!

 

[azygous]

What are the dimensions of your run? How many total chickens? Lack of adequate space may be one reason this hen is having a tough time.

There is a method where you can help this hen get her standing back, but it requires a safe space in the run during the day. It doesn't need to be very large, just enough room so she can move around freely. If she's currently laying, you would need to give her a nest there. Here's my article in this topic. https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/chicken-bully-chicken-victim-a-two-sided-issue.73923/

 

[kimanndurr]

Hi @azygous!

Thank you so much for your quick response and your article. I was thinking something along those lines for Dorothy as well!

Our run is 12x6 and we have a total of 7 chickens. They have the option of free ranging, although they don’t like the snow, so they usually stay in the run or coop these days.

The coop is 4x6.

Since it is so cold out, I don’t want to cage her off in the run because she seems to prefer the warmer coop, so it is tricky!

We do have a heated garage, but I’m worried that would completely remove her and might make things worse each time I put her back.