Help! Chicken introduction went wrong

[kauana]

Hello everyone,

I have a couple hens about 9 weeks old, and for the last month I put them with the older chickens but separated by a hardware cloth. Sometimes I would let them roam together under supervision but the older hens would always peck at the younger ones. I've read guides that said hens should be at least 8 weeks during introduction and they should be separated for a while so the older hens get used to them.

Well, I tried introducing them in the coop together while I was doing some gardening and I heard the young ones cluck sometimes but nothing crazy, and I assumed that was normal because of pecking oder business. Anyways, about 2 hours after the introduction I went to check on them and saw that they pecked at all tail feathers from my olive egger Maru and the wound looks horrible.

I separated them again and brought the wounded hen inside, we cleaned the wound with a saline solution and bandaged her and she is now in a room that is warm and quiet with bedding, water with vitamins and food.

I am attaching a photo of the wound. From your experience how bad is it? She is very quiet, but drinking water and even ate a bit.

I'm wondering if there is anything else I can do? She must be in pain but I heard online that human painkillers are blood thinners and not recommended for chickens so I haven't given her anything.

I am a bit freaked out by the aggressiveness of the older chickens, so how can I introduce them again going forward?

Thank you for your help!

 

[SmiYa0126]

Hello! Offer sweetened water for shock, keep her in a dim warm place. can you tell if they destroyed her oil gland? Did they get her vent?

Don't cover the wound, clean it and then slather it with antibiotic ointment. Clean twice a day and allow wound to dry before putting on ointment

@azygous @MysteryChicken another horrible pecking wound, any additional advice?

 

[RubelliteRose]

Oh no, I'm so sorry this happened. If your set up allows, this is how we introduced our littles to the bigs. We portioned off a section of the run with chicken wire for the littles during the day. At night in the coop, we placed them in a large dog crate on the poop board with a small roost inside so they were at the same level as the big girls, but safe from pecking. If you don't have room for a crate, do you have room to make a cage from chicken wire? Every morning we would hand carry the littles to the run(fortunately, there were only 3) and every night we would hand carry them into the coop. We did this until our most aggressive hen stopped pacing in front of their sectioned off area. I think it took a little over 2 weeks. We then let them out during the day, but kept them caged in the coop for a few more days to be sure she wouldn't go after them at night. The group then quickly integrated into the flock and we have had no issues other than normal pecking order squabbles.
Hope your girl heals quickly!

 

[azygous]

That sure is a lot of damage for such a short period of being with the older chickens, but it's not surprising. Putting young chicks with an adult flock without proper introduction will result in chasing and pecking. Once a wound is opened up, then it's "free lunch". Literally. Another hour or two and there likely wouldn't have been much left of the chick. This occurred in my flock with a single chick that was hatched, and the hen neglected it and left it out of the nest and another hen got to it.

Normally, I have a great system for integrating hatchery chicks into my flock. It involved brooding them in direct proximity to the flock from day one. The adult chickens cannot access the chicks as they are in a dedicated pen within the run. This gives the flock a sense that the chicks are part of the flock as they grow, and when the chicks do have access to the rest of the run between two and three weeks, the chicks know the adults and the adults have accepted the chicks as members of the flock.

The key to integrating chicks of any age to an adult flock is to provide a safe haven for the chicks where they can retreat when chased. I have small portals in this chick enclosure and also portals in every partition in my run so the tiny ones have "shortcuts" to safety and cannot get trapped in a corner by and adult and worked over as what happened to your chick. This article will describe this system, and it has photos. https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...and-start-raising-your-chicks-outdoors.71995/

I'm so sorry this happened. I know the gut wrenching feeling you had when discovering this poor chick. Keep her separated so the others won't use her as a meal with all that raw flesh exposed. Wash daily with saline and keep the wound always moist with an antibiotic ointment. Do not let the wound dry out. It will take around six weeks to heal, but then you will be faced with the problem of reintegration. Come back to this thread when that time comes, and we'll figure out a plan for that.

 

[kauana]

Hello! Offer sweetened water for shock, keep her in a dim warm place. can you tell if they destroyed her oil gland? Did they get her vent?

Don't cover the wound, clean it and then slather it with antibiotic ointment. Clean twice a day and allow wound to dry before putting on ointment

@azygous @MysteryChicken another horrible pecking wound, any additional advice?

Thank you for your answer. They didn't get to her vent because I saw her pooping.

How can I know if they got to their oil gland?

 

[kauana]

Thank you all. I bought some bluekote and some neosporin today. I am thinking of spraying bluekote and then adding neosporin to the wound once it dries up. Does that sound good?

Also, is there anything I can do to help her with the pain? Seeing her suffering breaks my heart.

 

[NorthwoodsChick]

I’m so sorry about your chick. Poor baby!
Azygous gave great advice to care for the wound. Very important to not let the wound bed or edges dry out.
The oil gland is at the juncture of the back and base of the tail. It is a small nipple like nub.
The article referenced is what I used when integrating my chicks in the coop and run at 5 weeks. Flocks differ though and it took 2.5 months for the littles (now 18 weeks) to not get chased from food, pecked and plucked, bullied on the roost despite lots of space and 16 ft of roost for 10 birds.
Good luck.

 

[MysteryChicken]

Hello everyone,

I have a couple hens about 9 weeks old, and for the last month I put them with the older chickens but separated by a hardware cloth. Sometimes I would let them roam together under supervision but the older hens would always peck at the younger ones. I've read guides that said hens should be at least 8 weeks during introduction and they should be separated for a while so the older hens get used to them.

Well, I tried introducing them in the coop together while I was doing some gardening and I heard the young ones cluck sometimes but nothing crazy, and I assumed that was normal because of pecking oder business. Anyways, about 2 hours after the introduction I went to check on them and saw that they pecked at all tail feathers from my olive egger Maru and the wound looks horrible.

I separated them again and brought the wounded hen inside, we cleaned the wound with a saline solution and bandaged her and she is now in a room that is warm and quiet with bedding, water with vitamins and food.

I am attaching a photo of the wound. From your experience how bad is it? She is very quiet, but drinking water and even ate a bit.

I'm wondering if there is anything else I can do? She must be in pain but I heard online that human painkillers are blood thinners and not recommended for chickens so I haven't given her anything.

I am a bit freaked out by the aggressiveness of the older chickens, so how can I introduce them again going forward?

Thank you for your help!

Is this the butt/abdomen area?
Is the vent okay? I can't tell.

 

[kauana]

I’m so sorry about your chick. Poor baby!
Azygous gave great advice to care for the wound. Very important to not let the wound bed or edges dry out.
The oil gland is at the juncture of the back and base of the tail. It is a small nipple like nub.
The article referenced is what I used when integrating my chicks in the coop and run at 5 weeks. Flocks differ though and it took 2.5 months for the littles (now 18 weeks) to not get chased from food, pecked and plucked, bullied on the roost despite lots of space and 16 ft of roost for 10 birds.
Good luck.

Thank you. I will try checking if the oil gland is still good.

I read the article plus the comments. I think what I was missing is a place for the hens to escape to if things got bad. Do I need to do an

Is this the butt/abdomen area?
Is the vent okay? I can't tell.

This is in the butt (where tail feathers were). The vent is okay, she pooped a couple times ever since the accident.

 

[MysteryChicken]

Thank you. I will try checking if the oil gland is still good.

I read the article plus the comments. I think what I was missing is a place for the hens to escape to if things got bad. Do I need to do an

This is in the butt (where tail feathers were). The vent is okay, she pooped a couple times ever since the accident.

Okay, good to know.