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- #11
I think the problem is solved as of a couple days ago. 
I realized that one of my buff orpingtons (who was at the bottom of the pecking order prior to this introduction) was being the most relentless bully, and I was considering removing her for several days so that when reintroduced, she'd have other priorities. But since she was so low in the pecking order already, I was hesitant to do that to her. So every night, I was going out to the coop and finding the new girl hiding in some weird place (in the corner, up on the rafters, underneath a tarp that I put out there for her to hide behind, etc). I would bring new girl in the garage and feed her and give her water, and then go back out and stick her on the roost. I did that one night and as I was closing the coop door again, I heard a bunch of squawking and opened the coop again only to realize that my orpington was pecking at her and forcing her off the roost in the DARK. That's when I decided, ok, this is ridiculous.
So I separated the orpington from the flock for a whole week. During that week, the new girl slowly got much more confident. She still mostly avoided the others, but I stopped finding her in strange places in the evenings. And toward the end of the week, I actually saw her get a drink at the waterer while one of my other chickens was drinking. Yay! So after the week was up, I put the orpington back in the run and immediately everyone went to beat her up. I actually had to intervene in the first couple of minutes when a little bit of blood was drawn. I put blu-kote on the wound and stuck her in a cage in the run overnight. The next day, I let everyone free range together. During the free ranging, the BO quickly re-integrated herself into the flock, and she totally ignored the new gal.
I realized that one of my buff orpingtons (who was at the bottom of the pecking order prior to this introduction) was being the most relentless bully, and I was considering removing her for several days so that when reintroduced, she'd have other priorities. But since she was so low in the pecking order already, I was hesitant to do that to her. So every night, I was going out to the coop and finding the new girl hiding in some weird place (in the corner, up on the rafters, underneath a tarp that I put out there for her to hide behind, etc). I would bring new girl in the garage and feed her and give her water, and then go back out and stick her on the roost. I did that one night and as I was closing the coop door again, I heard a bunch of squawking and opened the coop again only to realize that my orpington was pecking at her and forcing her off the roost in the DARK. That's when I decided, ok, this is ridiculous.
So I separated the orpington from the flock for a whole week. During that week, the new girl slowly got much more confident. She still mostly avoided the others, but I stopped finding her in strange places in the evenings. And toward the end of the week, I actually saw her get a drink at the waterer while one of my other chickens was drinking. Yay! So after the week was up, I put the orpington back in the run and immediately everyone went to beat her up. I actually had to intervene in the first couple of minutes when a little bit of blood was drawn. I put blu-kote on the wound and stuck her in a cage in the run overnight. The next day, I let everyone free range together. During the free ranging, the BO quickly re-integrated herself into the flock, and she totally ignored the new gal.
