HELP!! My Girls are FIGHTING!!!

[MissJenny]

Oh My Heavens!!!! One of my birds, Phoebe, got pecked to pieces several weeks ago, before their coop was finished. So I cleaned her up, but when I put her back in the brooder they all started picking on her AND she started picking on herself. Fine -- so ever since Phoebe has been separated out -- a house chicken, a lap chicken.

The coop is finished now, so I put a very slow hen and a nice one in with Phoebe. But the nice one has been picking on her. I've taken the nice one out of the coop and have left Phoebe in with the slow hen. But I don't know if I have done the right thing. I have Phoebe and the slow hen in the coop -- and the three somewhat aggressive hens in the house -- THE HOUSE. I want everybody to get along -- outside -- in the coop!!!

Help. Ideas, suggestions, requirements. How do I help them adjust and get along.

Jenny

 

[Barry Natchitoches]

I used to have alot of trouble merging groups of hens, until I found a method that seems to work every time.


I now cage the new birds in the same area as the older birds, but confined inside a cage (or behind fencing) that protects the new birds from the old birds.


Then I let them live together -- in sight of one another, where they can hear one another, and even interact between the fencing with one another. But I make sure that the two groups cannot actually touch one another.


I do this for about 2 weeks, and at the end of the second week, I start to let them have supervised visits together. I watch at first, to make sure they can get along, and the first few days I only let them have a limited amount of time comingling together. But after a few days, they will merge together just fine, and I can let the two groups live together safely at that point.


It works with my flock...

 

[Barry Natchitoches]

Oh, yeah, if you don't have any other way to segregate Phoebe and the "slow one" from the rest of the girls while you merge them together, get her one of those portable wire big dog cages, like they sell for about 60 bux at Lowe's. You can put her in there for a while, and then after she successfully merges, fold the dog cage up until next time you need it -- to integrate next year's baby chicks, for example.

 

[dondon]

yes they need to be seperate,iv got my new chicken in an enclosed area where the other chickens can see and talk to her lol theres been some chest butting through the wire but things settled down a couple of days ago so yesterday i let her out for an hour with the others ( supervised of course) they were ok apart from my buff orp who just kept chasing her away but the other 2 didnt mind and were happily scratching around wit her,i put her back in her run to be safe and will do the same today for an hour..its only been a wk in confinement so im going to wait another few days before they live together..

 

[MissJenny]

Thank you -- these are very good ideas. I was at my wit's end. The "slipping them in at night" thing didn't work very well.
(The "slow one" injured her leg when the gravel was delivered right outside their window - they all flipped out and that one ended up with a sprained leg -- she is doing better and better, but with a bad leg she couldn't chase Phoebe and was glad for the company... so that actually worked out well as far as Phoebe is concerned -- she at least has one friend for now. We see those dog crates at the flea market all the time... or I can build a divider for the run. I have a plastic dog crate that I can put into the coop for them at night, so they are separate but not and still protected inside. Do you think that will work?

Jenny