Exactly my thoughts. I am going to check her either late today or tomorrow, as I'm gone for the rest of the day and will try to get some. I wonder if it would make it more comfortable for her even if she is not losing much feathers yet? I do see a fluff under-feather sticking out here and there after these encounters.
But he is not going at her all day long. She is hiding for two hours in the coop during the morning rush. So far, no pullet has rousted her out of there in the morning.
However yesterday evening he had her three-four times in succession, hunting her non-stop in between. She went into the coop to escape and a pullet followed her in there and attacked her until she came out.
@BY Bob I am sort of interfering, in that I am proactively aiding her in some ways when I'm around, calling her to me sometimes when I'm standing in a spot that would be a better choice than where her panicked brain is telling her to run. She also runs to me as she does to a BO, standing behind me, using me as a shield, and I don't move away when she does that. Only twice I've lifted her up to a spot out of a trap between Shehnai and a pullet when I happen to be there. But I'm trying to let it play out and not appear as if I'm taking sides.
The BO's will hang with her but will also start foraging somewhere they find interesting. So Hazel will follow them. The BO's won't always be together in a tight group, so she has "outposts" she can run to. They also head off and push off the pullets a lot. But Annie was laying yesterday late afternoon, so they had a man down sort to speak, during the height of Shehnai's urges. That was quite a disadvantage for Hazel.
Seeing a pullet roust her out of the coop where she's gone to escape (twice I've seen that) is not fun. Hoping the pullets coming into lay in a few weeks will take the pressure off her. There are no safe zones for her, just places she can run until Shehnai and the pullets stop the spurt of chase.
I also have shut the BO's and Hazel in the big run for a break and left Shehnai and the pullets to the aviary area a couple of times. But I do want the two groups to integrate for winter when the aviary area will be closed to them. I am considering if with the configuration I'm planning I can make temporary divides of the runs and coops in winter if this level of stress continues. Right now the coops are both open to the big aviary area while I'm doing construction on the runs, so she has to have access through there to get to her coop in the evening.
