I know it sounds bad, but hear me out:
My BR hen, Pauline, lays JUMBO eggs and is a real character. But, she is getting on in age. We love her dearly and we wanted to incubate a couple of her eggs and see what came of it. So, at the time that we were planning this (late April 2011) we had a male BO and thought it would be a great opportunity to breed them and hatch a sex-linked baby or two so we could keep the girl, were we to get one. Fast forward to the first week of May 2011 and our hopes were fulfilled when we hatched two little ones... a boy and a girl. We gave the boy to a friend and kept little "Cleo" to raise and one day replace Pauline. As luck had it, we had a hen go broody shortly before Cleo hatched, so she was raised by that hen and all was well.
Fast forward about 6 months and it has become apparent that Cleo is a headache, to say the least. Her mother, Pauline, is the most dominant hen in the whole flock. Rules the roost, as it were. Cleo, on the other hand, is the absolute complete LOWEST on the pecking order. She is the largest bird I own, period. HUGE. But she is wildly terrified of any and all other birds, save some new-hatched chicks living in a brooder near the coops. She will GALLOP (not kidding, imagine a hen stampeding wildly) away from all the other birds if they even step near her, and give a distressed "I'm being murdered!!!" honk/cry the entire time. She will throw herself against the fence, against the waterer, against the nest boxes, the feeders, knocking all over just to run away from her imagined attackers. Even when they are not intentionally approaching her. She is so high strung that she spends the vast majority of her time hiding and pacing, and I worry daily that she will have a heart attack. She is late developing, probably due to stress, and hasn't layed yet and doesn't really look like she's getting close to it based on her lack of comb/wattle development. She's probably outweighing her mom now by at least 2 pounds, and her dad by at least one and she is only 6 months old! Honestly though, it pains me to see her so stressed! She is the epitomy of paranoid!!! She is also every bit as terrified of me, if not more so, than she is the other chickens. It breaks my heart!
Where all my girls are running under my feet and eating from my hand, Cleo is bashing herself senseless against the coop door to escape me when I am not even glancing her way...
I have tried the following: separation/isolation wherein I gave her treats by hand. She would rather starve and bruise herself trying to get away. Putting her with younger, less dominant birds... she still beat herself nearly bloody trying to escape. Having her tough it out in the big coop: she loses weight and sleeps in the nest box or hides/paces all day until I have to get everyone else out just to let her eat and drink.
Keep in mind, she has NEVER been attacked or pecked to the point of missing feathers OR bleeding. Most of her panic is just her paranoia of what another hen's intentions are, but of course when the other hens see her getting so upset they eventually get sick of it and do go after her but I think it's more of a "shut up already!!!" reaction...
I am almost giving up hope here. I have raised her to nearly point of laying and hate to sell her, but I can't mentally take this much more!!!
My BR hen, Pauline, lays JUMBO eggs and is a real character. But, she is getting on in age. We love her dearly and we wanted to incubate a couple of her eggs and see what came of it. So, at the time that we were planning this (late April 2011) we had a male BO and thought it would be a great opportunity to breed them and hatch a sex-linked baby or two so we could keep the girl, were we to get one. Fast forward to the first week of May 2011 and our hopes were fulfilled when we hatched two little ones... a boy and a girl. We gave the boy to a friend and kept little "Cleo" to raise and one day replace Pauline. As luck had it, we had a hen go broody shortly before Cleo hatched, so she was raised by that hen and all was well.
Fast forward about 6 months and it has become apparent that Cleo is a headache, to say the least. Her mother, Pauline, is the most dominant hen in the whole flock. Rules the roost, as it were. Cleo, on the other hand, is the absolute complete LOWEST on the pecking order. She is the largest bird I own, period. HUGE. But she is wildly terrified of any and all other birds, save some new-hatched chicks living in a brooder near the coops. She will GALLOP (not kidding, imagine a hen stampeding wildly) away from all the other birds if they even step near her, and give a distressed "I'm being murdered!!!" honk/cry the entire time. She will throw herself against the fence, against the waterer, against the nest boxes, the feeders, knocking all over just to run away from her imagined attackers. Even when they are not intentionally approaching her. She is so high strung that she spends the vast majority of her time hiding and pacing, and I worry daily that she will have a heart attack. She is late developing, probably due to stress, and hasn't layed yet and doesn't really look like she's getting close to it based on her lack of comb/wattle development. She's probably outweighing her mom now by at least 2 pounds, and her dad by at least one and she is only 6 months old! Honestly though, it pains me to see her so stressed! She is the epitomy of paranoid!!! She is also every bit as terrified of me, if not more so, than she is the other chickens. It breaks my heart!
I have tried the following: separation/isolation wherein I gave her treats by hand. She would rather starve and bruise herself trying to get away. Putting her with younger, less dominant birds... she still beat herself nearly bloody trying to escape. Having her tough it out in the big coop: she loses weight and sleeps in the nest box or hides/paces all day until I have to get everyone else out just to let her eat and drink.
Keep in mind, she has NEVER been attacked or pecked to the point of missing feathers OR bleeding. Most of her panic is just her paranoia of what another hen's intentions are, but of course when the other hens see her getting so upset they eventually get sick of it and do go after her but I think it's more of a "shut up already!!!" reaction...
I am almost giving up hope here. I have raised her to nearly point of laying and hate to sell her, but I can't mentally take this much more!!!
