Help! How to get a hen back in the group

[SarPil]

I had a sick hen that I had to remove from the group. Now they have pushed her out and she hides from the group all day. She use to be very friendly now she seems very fearful of everything and everyone. I often have to get the dogs to find her so I can put her back in the coop at night.

 

[chooks4life]

Why is she hiding from the group? Is she being bullied? Also are you totally sure she's completely better? Her decision to separate herself makes me think either the issue is not totally resolved, or you have some serious bullies in your main flock.

 

[SarPil]

Not sure if she is 100% better but she seems to be eating well and her poop looks back to normal. When I go in to let them out she is on the pole with the others but from the droppings I can tell they have pushed her off to one corner. She will not come out of the coop she spends her days hiding under the nesting boxes if she does make her way out she hides in the bushes. I think she only comes out because other us the dogs or the other birds have scared her out. Like I said she is very fearful now. The few times I have seen her around the group the rooster has gone after her. We were also giving her fluids by syringe for a few days until she really started to fight us so not sure if she is hiding from us for that reason?

 

[SarPil]

She cane back to the coop last night on her own so I am hoping this is a good start

 

[chooks4life]

Sorry, was offline for a bit. Busy.

It's good to hear she's going back into the group. Wonder why the rooster was going after her? Not the nicest mentality... Not something I'd tolerate in mine, but each to their own.

It's already good that your hens are tolerating her, so that's a plus. Nothing much you can do with a flock that sets upon and destroys every ill or injured (or just young) animal they have among them. Such a flock would need culling or closing, in my opinion. I cull animals from my flock for intolerance to infants, injured, or ill birds, because it's my decision what to do with such individuals, not the flock's. Healthy mentalities mind their own. I can't have birds who will kill any sick or hurt animal because I could have fixed the animal in most cases, rather than have it wasted.

People think it's just natural instinct to destroy the weak, but it's not; that's a bit of misinformation that's been getting passed around since I was a child. In the wild, the ill and injured are left behind. When the dying animal tries to join a group it will be driven away, but expending time and energy to kill something that is already failing is not natural unless the creature doing the killing is a predator.

When we cage animals intensively and they get so bored they go out of their minds, then they kill for sport, and can feel great distress over being caged with dying animals. But it's not a healthy, natural instinct, it's something we've forced on them, and when allowed to free range it ought to dissipate... But of course it tends to linger on until culled out, long after its purpose has been invalidated.

Best wishes with your flock.