Help! Trying to introduce new Hen

[cherp68]

3 weeks ago we brought home to our 2 Red-Sex Link hens, a Silkie and 3 4-week old Ameraucanas...The 2 old hens are still torturing the poor Silkie. We had the Silkie and the 3 chicks in a seperate coop for 2 weeks, then the 3 babies decided they would go into the big coop with the older hens - they have been fine, the bigger girls are not bothering the babies. But we can't get them to stop jumping on the Silkie and yanking on her head!

The silkie still beds down on her own in the smaller coop so we have left her, but in the morning when we let them all out to run around the yard the big girls chase the Silkie down and jump on her. I had read here in previous posts that someone suggested sneaking the Silkie into the big coop after the others have bedded down, setting her on the roost and when they are wake up in the morning the older girls will just think she has been there all along. Well, last night I did this, I snuck the Silkie in, she sat on the roost beside one of the big girls and the night was quiet. I woke up this morning @ 7 to let them all out & make sure our Silkie was still alive and everything was peaceful in the big coop. It didn't appear the Silkie had been attacked at all, in fact she was in one of the nesting boxes and one of the big girls was still on the roost - everyone came out of the coop to roam the yard in an orderly fashion. But once they were all in the yard the 2 big girls chased after the Silkie and jumped on her again, pinning her to the ground, yanking on her head.

I don't know what to try next to stop the big girls from attacking her. Should I have brought home 2 Silkies? (so maybe there would be a pair to fight off the attacks?)

Any suggestions I will gladly try.

 

[DawnM]

I usually have the opposite problem, they are fine in the yard but fight in the coop. Just keep going at it, eventually it will calm down. It is always better to bring them in pairs or more so they have a friend while they are being introduced into the flock but you'd probably have the same issues with 2 as you do with one. Sometimes it just takes time.

 

[LindsayB]

I'm having the same problem..I introduced our new silkie to our two EE hens and the boss keeps attacking her. Someone suggested putting her inside a cage inside the coop/run so thats what I did. I'll give it a week or two and see if they accept her. If not, she might have her own small coop and run with another silkie. Its very frustrating...I've never had a problem with any other chickens that we've had. They usually peck at eachother a few time but never anything like this.