Chickens Ganging Up On 1 Other Chicken

[moderndayhippy]

I'm sorry if this has been asked here before, but I kind of consider this an emergency. I am EXTREMELY new to the world of having chickens, as we just got ours 3 days ago. These are our first ones ever, so yeah, I'm a total newbie at this.

Although I did try to research ahead of time and tried to be prepared for our small flock of 5, I wasn't prepared for how 4 of my girls all gang up on my poor other chicken (I call her Molly) and totally traumatize her. They will totally dominate her by running her off, making her stay in the coop while they all enjoy the run, or visa versa. And they will peck at her (not constantly of course) even though I tried putting vinegar all over her body to keep them away from her. My friend Jen who has had chickens for a while said that MAY help, but she thought probably not.

She suggested putting Molly in a separate place, away from the rest of the flock, which I agree is probably a wise thing to do. But I honestly don't know where to keep her. I don't have a dog house for her, or another coop to put her in. All I currently have are the cages that we brought them home in, which belong to my mother-in-law (although I'm sure she'd let us keep them longer if need be). We have them right outside of the coop stacked on top of each other. It's finally starting to warm up here now, so I'm wondering if it'd be ok to put her in the cage tonight by herself? I could put some pine shavings in there and lock her in until the morning if she'd be safer. But then I'd worry about outside predators coming and trying to harm her.

Any ideas on what I should do with my poor Molly girl? I want to protect her, but just don't know how. I feel so badly for her and don't want them to kill or seriously hurt her. I'd even be willing to put her in the cage and bring it up on our back deck. Then, if that's ok, do I try to integrate her back into the flock during the day, or will this have to be a permanent thing?

Thank you so much for any help.

 

[RedfogsFlock]

If it were my flock this is what I would do...

First of all I'd let Molly out first to the run for aproximately 15 minutes before the other girls. Then let the others out. Now there is a thing called pecking order, and they will do just that to each other to establish dominance over one another. As long as there is no blood and gutts I would try to NOT interveen. They will work it out amongst themselves.

There are a few things that would help us help you a little better.

Did you get them all from the same place at the same time? Are they all about the same age? Were they together before you got them, or they all new to each other?

The best way to introduce chickens to each other we have found is over some good ol' free ranging.

Good luck!

 

[okieglory]

Well if this doesn't get better try putting Molly in a some kind of cage and let the others out so they can get acquainted but Molly won't get hurt, this is what I did and it worked really well and quick but I'm no chicken expert so you might want to try some other options first.

 

[ChickenMama18]

We have one bird who was so weak socially within the flock that we eventually had to totally remove her from the flock altogether. They would always get her bleeding, which would attract everyone to pecking it more. We'd put pine tar on (they hate the taste, but I hear vasoline/vapor rub is good too) and then let her heal in a cage within the coop. We used a metal dog crate. After she healed we tried reintroducing her (with pine tar on her) and they would seem fine but then they would all ganged up on her again. Around and around we went until we finally made her a place by herself. They can free range together but in a coop/run it didn't work even though they had plenty of room. So try that if you can...let her heal in a cage within the cage and then let them out together free ranging. If they're cool free ranging...try them together again. For our bird it didn't work, but it might for yours. I'm told it usually does. We have new chicks that we're introducing soon to our loner so she won't be alone anymore. Good luck...keep us posted. This place is a wealth of experince and help. I don't know what I'd do without it!

 

[moderndayhippy]

First, thank you all so much for the replies. I will answer the questions asked to help you understand the situation a little bit better too.

"As long as there is no blood and gutts I would try to NOT interveen." No blood and guts thus far. Just them abusing her a little. Like they will come up to her and peck at her neck or back a time or 2 to get her out of their way. Sometimes she's fine, and then others they scare me by running her off and pecking at her. It's painfully obvious that she's at the bottom of the totem pole and that she's somewhat of a loner. I've noticed that her red mohawk (sorry, I probably sound like an idiot because I don't know all of the proper terminology - LOL) on the top of her head is way smaller than all of the other girls'. Is that a factor in her pecking order? That's actually how I can tell her apart from all of the others.

"Did you get them all from the same place at the same time?" Yes.

"Are they all about the same age?" Yes. Exactly the same age from the same place, and same family I believe. They're all the same breed - Black Sexlinks.

"Were they together before you got them, or they all new to each other?" All together at the same place from the time they were born, so they should be familiar with each other. Although there were way more chickens at their former home, and there were roosters there as well. Here we have no roosters, only the 5 girls.


My chickens aren't free range (I don't think). I keep them in their coop and then they have a nice run to walk out into. By free range I believe you mean wandering around in the yard freely, correct? The reason I don't allow them to do that is because I have small children who like to run around in our yard and fall quite frequently in the grass. I'm thinking it's probably not healthy for them to be falling in chicken poop. Their run is a nice size though, so hopefully that's sufficient. We were told it's actually larger than need be, and we'd eventually like to expand it even further, just so they're a little more spoiled. I plan on cleaning the coop once per week, which I'm also told is more than necessary, but I want to take good care of them and treat them well.

Thank you again for all of the help. I really appreciate it.