Injured Hen

[GoldbachFuzzyButtFarm]

My son's favorite hen had gotten attacked awhile back and had the back of her neck to the top of her head basically scalped. We quarenteened her from the other chickens and treated hee wounds. Once she was scabbed up enough to go outside my neighbors took her in (she's a full size hen, while my neighbor has little seramas, so we had a feeling they wouldn't harrass her) fast forward to now, she's all healed just no feathers want to really come in there. We attempted to reintroduce her to the flock and at first it didn't seem to bad, but then I noticed the poor girl hiding in nesting boxes until no one was in the coop then quickly coming down for food and drink. I went in to check on her and she now has a giant gash on the very top of her head. I'm not sure what to do anymore. We put her in our mini coop that we use for babies but I feel awful. Any suggestions? The other chickens just won't let her be, and its a shame to have her locked up all the time.

 

[coach723]

She is back with your flock, or still with the neighbors flock? It's often hard to integrate a single bird, they have no buddies and are on their own. If you have one or two birds that do get along with her, or at least don't pick on her or attack her, then (once healed enough) try to integrate those 1 or 2 together with her, let them become a group, then try integrating the group back into the bigger group. That may go better. It's very hard to predict how long each phase can take, it very much depends on the individual birds personalities and temperments.