Integrating a Salmon Faverolle

[CascadeQUAIL]

Oh man. Samwell. She is such a handful. We got her 2 weeks ago along with her "sister" she was hatched with (Wyandotte), they were in a large actual farm flock but get along very well. The wyandotte is fully integrated into our backyard flock and is doing just fine.

Then there's Sam. The other chickens (3 hens + the "new" hen) just want to do the pecking order dance with her. They run up and fluff up their necks but Sam doesn't even speak that language. She runs around beeping like a bobwhite quail and inevitably runs by one who gives her a small peck. Even if they don't make contact (I've seen some "attacks" very close up and they missed by about 3 inches) Sam will scream like the devil and run around in circles that much longer.

The other chickens are just bewildered. We have one that is sort of slow and when she finally musters the courage to do the neck fluff dance, Sam runs away and I swear the slow one looks dejected...what did I do wrong? That's how all the other chickens do it....

Joking aside how can we get Sam to get into the flock. We put her in the roost every night when the others are asleep and it's fine. Everytime they are in the run together Sam can't even keep it together and ends up just blindly smashing against the top or a wall until we let her out.

When they are out in the yard Sam is opposite sides and will try and do a run by only to get picked and scream and run even farther away. They coexist fine our yard is big enough, but can't be in the run together at all.

We've tried putting Sam in a smaller cage within the run and again hysterics until we cancelled it. It wasn't just a little scared behavior she was going to kill herself.

The other chickens aren't even picking on her they just want to establish the pecking order. Should we give Sam more time? Anything else we can try?

 

[aart]

We got her 2 weeks ago along with her "sister" she was hatched with (Wyandotte), they were in a large actual farm flock but get along very well. The wyandotte is fully integrated into our backyard flock and is doing just fine.

How did you integrate?
Dimensions and pics of your coop and run might help here.
Fluffy faced and headed birds can have a hard time seeing, can make them skittish.

 

[CascadeQUAIL]

How did you integrate?
Dimensions and pics of your coop and run might help here.
Fluffy faced and headed birds can have a hard time seeing, can make them skittish.

To integrate since we couldn't do the "see don't touch" we just let them all go in the yard. We waited a few days until the new chickens were comfortable. They coexist well enough and don't need supervision when they have all the space but can't be in the run together.

The run is 5 x 10 and pretty sparse. They are outside in the yard 75% of the day, which is an average lot size. The coop is probably 4x3 but they only go there for sleeping.

Sam is not skititsh around us despite having never been handled. I do worry that the feathers blind her especially because she has a "hatchery defect beard." Is it worth trimming them? I'm nervous to put scissors so close to her eye when she's such a bozo.

Thanks for the help.

 

[Mrs. K]

They are telling you that you don't have enough room. Imagine that you get to be outside all day but at night you have to sleep in an elevator with a bunch of people. The outside time does not make up for it. I would give her away.

Some birds can stand a little over crowding, some birds have no tolerance for it. She doesn't. Always solve for the peace of the flock. While you think of her as the victim, it is very unsettling for the other hens too to be with that much turmoil.

Let her go to somewhere else. Or let one of the other birds.

Mrs K