HELP! Chicken Bullies

[kimf]

I have 7 hens who have all recently started laying. In the mix is one polish. She was getting picked on (no pun intended). Someone was pulling her head feathers. I removed her from the coop/run and she is healed. I tried putting her back in today and 3-4 of the hens immediately started pecking at her and they pulled two feathers!!

She is my son's favorite (he has Autism) so we really hate to get rid of her.

Plus I have two more Polish babies scheduled to be shipped Monday along with 3 EEs. We are looking at another small coop thinking maybe we can put all 3 Polish together and add the 3 EEs to the existing flock, but financially that would be rough right now. Any other tips or suggestions? Anything I missed or didn't try? thanks!!

 

[raymondjames]

What I learned is that when you see a pecker, take the pecker (not the peckee) and spearate her to a confined small area, talk sternly (or course, access to feed & water). Give her 2-3 days in there. I had this situation, I think it took 2 or 3 doses and now the aggressive hen is the nicest, sweetest girl in the flock. She's awesome. Remove all the peckers, and the others get the message. Don't keep the mean ones in the same cage/near each other, social activity makes less of a punishment that was otherwise fine. Treat your Polish nicely, give it treats for hanging in there. And pet it's fuzzy head!!!

 

[SuperChickMama]

We culled our bully 2 weeks ago........

 

[raymondjames]

Usually it's just discipline and not culling. Kimf, if you're chicken gets bad, rehome her. Just make sure it's not a trip to a slaughterhouse.

 

[kimf]

My problem is it is at least 3 of the other 6 in the coop/run bullying her. Where do I put them all?

And why did they just start? I got them all from the same hatchery and they have been together for 5 months before it started. Does it have to do with their laying? We have an old puppy pen type gate thing that snaps together to make a square--maybe 30X30. We have had the Polish in that. I don't have anywhere to keep more than one hen.

And now I am worried about integrating the babies when they are big enough. Ugh!