hard times for new bird

[f100mike]

Hey guys, we've got a tiny "flock" of bantams, one OEG roo & hen, one Mille Fleur that we raised from chicks last year. We wanted to increase the flock a bit, so the last week of March, we bought 6 more chicks. Attrition got two the first week, then at about 10 weeks we lost two more to some mysterious disease, which left us with two. A coon somehow managed to drag most of one of the remaining birds through the coop and consume about half of him, so that left us with one Mille Fleur mixed hen. We've tried to introduce her to the flock, but they've just about pecked her poor little head off. When free ranging, she keeps her distance, and does not flock with the other birds at all, if they get closer than 20 or 30 feet, she moves well away, and given their treatment of her, I don't blame her at all.

We tried moving one hen into her pen with her, thinking that maybe the new surroundings and just one bird might be enough to settle things, but the older bird attacks the younger at every turn, even on her own turf in the other pen.

I know it will be difficult to move one bird to a flock, and our main pen/run is pretty small, so I'm very open to suggestions.

Should we place her in a cage inside the pen and then "night place" her on the roost after several days? There seems to be no way to get the others from durn near killing her, so since I don't want to raise two separate flocks, I'm looking for the solution.

 

[teach1rusl]

I think your suggestion is your best bet...keeping her in a pen within the main pen area, and putting her on the roost at night, then putting her back in her pen first thing in the morning. That means having her own water/food/shade. I think you'll have to do that for at least a week, maybe more??? Yeah, it's never good trying to integrate just one bird. Good luck; hope things work out for the new little bird.