I think my hen was abused :(

[Kris5902]

I have to agree that time, patience, and treats are usually the best way to gain any animals trust. Also important is being calm and accepting that it doesn’t always work perfectly to begin with. Working with any rescue animal is far more challenging than your average pet or livestock, because you have to prove you’re not a threat to them.

If you have any suspicions that she may have come from a less than perfect home, you have to work 3x as hard to be quiet and calm around her. Losing your temper or being in anyway even agitated around an animal that has suffered at human hands is counterproductive.

Animals can sense our frustration and anger and being in that state around a potentially abused one will cause it to lose whatever trust you’ve built. You need to make a conscious effort to only be calm around her, even if she’s not behaving perfectly.

 

[Sobek]

Also, try not to take it out on your hen when you lose your cool. Your hen won't understand that she's being loud and your getting angry won't help solve anything.
If I'm having a bad day and one of my girls is being unusually loud or mean, I do get frustrated, but I know getting mad at that chicken is actually very pointless. I'm always the one who needs to calm down most of the time

I keep saying though she wasn't really my chicken. She was a rescue so I wasn't as patient as the other I had raised from chickens. I have a special bond with my other chickens. So when she came she started to disrupt everything and she was bothering the other chickens. Not one of us liked her. But she had got sick so I started to medicate and take care of her for a couple of weeks. that time I spent with sunshine really helped me to appreciate her and I've never lost my cool with her again. I've NEVER hurt my chickens intentionally. People act like I was beating them or throwing them around. I'm going to start recording how I raise my chickens so people can see what I do that's so unconventional and unique to my flock

 

[Sobek]

I have to agree that time, patience, and treats are usually the best way to gain any animals trust. Also important is being calm and accepting that it doesn’t always work perfectly to begin with. Working with any rescue animal is far more challenging than your average pet or livestock, because you have to prove you’re not a threat to them.

If you have any suspicions that she may have come from a less than perfect home, you have to work 3x as hard to be quiet and calm around her. Losing your temper or being in anyway even agitated around an animal that has suffered at human hands is counterproductive.

Animals can sense our frustration and anger and being in that state around a potentially abused one will cause it to lose whatever trust you’ve built. You need to make a conscious effort to only be calm around her, even if she’s not behaving perfectly.

Thank you for your patience with me Yes things have seemed to get better but she's still a little sketchy about stuff. I just don't really know what else do to. I've been very sweet to her and I've taken good care of her but it feels like it's been forever of me doing that and idk I was just afraid she was too traumatized to really recover? like a PTSD type thing

 

[RodNTN]

I keep saying though she wasn't really my chicken. She was a rescue so I wasn't as patient as the other I had raised from chickens. I have a special bond with my other chickens. So when she came she started to disrupt everything and she was bothering the other chickens. Not one of us liked her. But she had got sick so I started to medicate and take care of her for a couple of weeks. that time I spent with sunshine really helped me to appreciate her and I've never lost my cool with her again. I've NEVER hurt my chickens intentionally. People act like I was beating them or throwing them around. I'm going to start recording how I raise my chickens so people can see what I do that's so unconventional and unique to my flock

I know that you would never hurt your chicken intentionally, and I definitely know that you didn't beat or throw them, anybody who would adopt a rescue is a wonderful chicken keeper!
As @Kris5902 said, rescues are harder to break in. So just keep trying

 

[Kris5902]

@Sobek how long have you been working with her? Every individual is different, and depending on her personality and breed, how long she was in her prior situation and how bad that situation was for her will all affect her recovery time.

Even if you have never roughly handled her, if you even unknowingly do something that mimics the past trauma it can brand you as a threat.

My friend had an abused mini-pin rescue dog and if you used the wrong phrases around it, ”goof, idiot and goofy” it would go into a terror and hide shivering. Even if the word was said in normal conversation... “Jason in science class is such and idiot” and she would panic. It was over 5 years before the poor thing finally settled down.

Also remember that chickens are a prey animal, and have a strong flight instinct to protect themselves. You’re working on overcoming that as well as any past traumas.