Hello, and help?

[oneacrewife]

Hello all! My name is Samantha, I just recently started a homestead with my fiance here in hawthorne, fl. As of right now we have seven silver fox rabbits (five does and two bucks), four flemish giant rabbits (three does and one buck), ten laying hens (three americanas, two delaware, two black astralorpes, two barred rocks, and one yellow buff), one welsummer roo, eight welsh harlequin ducks (four ducks and 4 drakes), 19 wh duck eggs in the incubator, three chicken eggs in the incubator, two indian runner drakes, and one hampshire barrow. Ive never done the homesteading thing, and my fiance has very little animal experince. I used to own a showpig farm, so husbantry is well within my skill set. Our goal is to be self sustained, almost completely, by January of 2019. I have begun my own blog, which is still under construction, where I will update about the farm on a regular basis.

Question: something attacked our yellow buff a few weeks back, of course due to her injuries the rest of the flock started picking on her. I put her in a pen by herself that shares a fence with her flock in hopes that id be able to reintroduce them with little problem. However, it hasnt worked out like that. Then i put her in with the other birds the roo will flog her, and the hens peck at her. Is there a better way to go about this? Any and all help is appreciated.

 

[SunHwaKwon]

Is it all the hens attacking her? Sometimes it helps to remove the head hen and the rooster and reintroduce her to the rest of the flock, then add the other two back. I'm just going off of what I've seen other people suggest as I've never been in this situation but hopefully someone else will chime in.

 

[oneacrewife]

I wouldn't say it was all of them, but maybe two or three. I did try removing the rooster once and there werected two hens that kept at her. Next time I'll try taking out the head ladies as well. Thanks for the advice!

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

Hello, and welcome to BYC!
How much space are you working with in which you are attempting to reintegrate her? Are you able to free range your birds at all or must you keep them confined to this area at all times? What sort of obstacles are in this area that she can use to escape under/onto? Do you have the ability to rearrange things a bit within the area so not only is she a "new" bird coming in but the rest of the flock has a "new" environment to be distracted by? Can you house a couple of the birds that are not involved in the picking with her for a couple of weeks and then introduce all three of them to the rest of the flock so that there are three "new" birds coming in rather than just the one?

 

[redsoxs]

Greetings from Kansas, Samantha, and

! Pleased you joined our community! I agree with the post above. Here's a link that already kind of describes what you're doing but perhaps doing it for a long period might be worth a try??? https://www.backyardchickens.com/newsearch?search=see+but+don't+touch
Best wishes and thanks for joining BYC!!

 

[oneacrewife]

Greetings from Kansas, Samantha, and  !  Pleased you joined our community!  I agree with the post above.  Here's a link that already kind of describes what you're doing but perhaps doing it for a long period might be worth a try???  https://www.backyardchickens.com/newsearch?search=see+but+don't+touch
Best wishes and thanks for joining BYC!!   

Okay thank you for the information!!

 

[SunHwaKwon]

Hello, and welcome to BYC!
How much space are you working with in which you are attempting to reintegrate her? Are you able to free range your birds at all or must you keep them confined to this area at all times? What sort of obstacles are in this area that she can use to escape under/onto? Do you have the ability to rearrange things a bit within the area so not only is she a "new" bird coming in but the rest of the flock has a "new" environment to be distracted by? Can you house a couple of the birds that are not involved in the picking with her for a couple of weeks and then introduce all three of them to the rest of the flock so that there are three "new" birds coming in rather than just the one?

I forgot about that approach! Great suggestion.

 

[oneacrewife]

Hello, and welcome to BYC!
How much space are you working with in which you are attempting to reintegrate her?  Are you able to free range your birds at all or must you keep them confined to this area at all times?   What sort of obstacles are in this area that she can use to escape under/onto?  Do you have the ability to rearrange things a bit within the area so not only is she a "new" bird coming in but the rest of the flock has a "new" environment to be distracted by?  Can you house a couple of the birds that are not involved in the picking with her for a couple of weeks and then introduce all three of them to the rest of the flock so that there are three "new" birds coming in rather than just the one? 

Lets see.. my flock is in an 8x14 coop/run that's about 6.5 ft tall. There are nests and roosting sticks for her to hide in/on. I haven't tried free ranging with this flock yet, we have some pretty rough predators out here so I'm still a little worried about loosing any birds. I think I will try to house a few of the other docile hens with her for a while. Hopefully that will help. Thank you for your wisdom!

 

[drumstick diva]

Welcome to Backyard chickens. If you have " rough predators" - free ranging your flock, will be serving them free lunch. A large, covered run would be so much better.

 

[oneacrewife]

Welcome to Backyard chickens.   If you have " rough predators" - free ranging your flock,  will be serving them free lunch.  A large, covered run would be  so much better.

I've actually started drawing up run blue prints already haha. We plan on making another run just for meat birds, so adding on to their pen wouldn't be muchome trouble.