Help - my hen will not accept her new roommates !!

[Nichola]

Hi there, we originally had three 'one day' old chickens which turned out to be two hens and a rooster (the latter we had to give away due to its aggressive nature) which left us with two great laying hens but after a year we lost one of them which left us all very upset. Anyway we did not wish to leave our one remaining hen on her own so a week later we got two new chickens - a bit older this time - 16 weeks. Sorry I forgot to mention they are all Light Sussex so usually quite good natured, like company and to be handled. So to my problem. Our hen will not let the two new chickens out of the chicken coop and into the run. If they as much as show their beaks out the coop door she is up the ramp and putting them back in again. The run is very big so there is plenty of room for them all. I did all the usual things in that when we got them initially we put them all into the garden which is quite large so they were not beside each other and only put them together at night - we did this for a few days. We also put out separate food and water for them all so that they would not be fighting over that. Nothing seems to have worked and to make matters worse our hen has stopped laying too!!! Now I expected that and I know that will return but what do I do about her not letting the other chickens out of coup. I could close the door on the coup and just let them fight it out but am afraid too! Any suggestions or advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

[chook master]

Fighting is normal if you are introducing a new chicken, even if it gets really bad, let them sort it out. I am not sure why there not laying but I am pretty sure it has nothing to do with the fighting. It might be because it's Winter or Autumn; they don't usually lay in those seasons.