Hello from Washington :)

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LIH3

LIH3

In the Brooder
7 Years
Dec 30, 2012
11
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24
Yesterday we started our new chicken adventure with three beautiful hens! One very sweet Buff Orpington a Barred Rock and a black Maran. They all came from the same flock and are about 7mths old. They are in a 4' x 8' coop.

I realize they have a lot of adjusting to do when it comes to pecking order but the Maran keeps chasing and pecking at the poor Orpington and even made her bleed today on her beak, there was even some blood on the inside wall of the roost. I don't see any injuries on her besides her beak. I feel so sad for her, :( She is so sweet and will let us hold and pet her already. She has been "hiding" inside the roost for half the day and wouldn't even come out when I opened the gate to let them all run around the yard. I would peek in at her and give her little treats but then she didn't even want any after a while. I feel so bad that this is how her new home life has to start :( Does this sound like pretty normal behavior?
 
Welcome to BYC
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They're probably establishing the pecking order for their new home. You can hang some fruit (apples will do) and see how they react. Hopefully that will distract them.
 
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, from Virginia! The beginning of keeping chickens is always so exciting!

I know in my flock, we had a learning curve in the early days where the leader of the flock and one other hen had to be removed from the rest for two months. When we were able to bring them back, we quickly found out a new pecking order had already been established and our old top-of-the-pecking-order hen had suddenly become the very bottom of the pecking order.
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Believe me, that was difficult to watch and as newbies, we had no idea this would happen. We assumed they'd still know who she was and she'd go back to being the leader of the pack. Talk about a learning curve!

These two hens did exactly what your sweet hen is doing now, where they would run to me for safety in those early days of finding the new pecking order. However, once the pecking order was established, they stopped coming to me for safety, and had clearly found their place. It'll happen in time. Distractions helped my mental sanity, but from what I observed, I found distractions and my constant "help" only prolonged the process, making it harder on them. I believe the pecking order would have been established sooner if I had just let them do what chickens have to do. In the future, I will only observe new chickens in a flock to ensure safety, but will allow them to establish that pecking order as quickly as possible.

Hope that helps!
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And I hope you enjoy your new adventure! They are such lovely pets to have!
 
Wow thanks for the quick replies!
I'm so happy to have joined BYC, I'm sure I will be using this resource often! Thanks for the ideas too :) It's nice to hear from others who have experienced this already.
It is pretty sad but I'm realizing I do just have to let them figure it out. My poor little gal never did venture out of the roost again today. I checked on them after the other two joined her for bed and they seem to all be ok resting now even though she is in a nesting box and the other two where laying next to each other on the floor. Hopefully they will want her to snuggle with them given some time. Thanks again!

Also, KIDCODY, what an amazingly beautiful profile picture! I have never seen an Orpington like that! So neat!
 
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