Introduction

[StephRN]

So I am a new chicken owner. I raised 6 chickens together from chick age. They have been with us for 4 months now. I did have two Barred Rocks, two RI reds, and two Cali whites. I added two Polish hens to the flock a month ago. The flock is constantly picking on one Polish chicken. They also pick on the other Polish, but not as severely. The picking was lead by my Cali whites. I started to incorperate the Polish hens slowly. I had them in a metal dog cage outside right next to the chicken coop/run. They all free range together during the day with few incidences. I started to at night put the polish hens in a nesting box in the coop and then free range during the day. I have found the back of the head of one polish hen has been pecked raw and bleeding. I removed her to heal and then started the process again. I have even tried to change the pecking order by removing the head hen and putting her in the dog cage and letting the Polish hens in the coop. So far the pecking on the main Polish hen has been reduced, but she is still very skidish and the head hen still leads the flock and picks on the one polish hen like never before. However, we recently lost a Cali white and RI red to a neighbor dog while we were on vacation. I would like to replace my hens with producing hens, possibly an orphington or Easter Eggers, but am afraid of them not getting accepted into the flock. What can I do to help get my Polish hens to be accepted and if I add others to get them accepted?

 

[Chick-N-Fun]

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