Isolated Chicken

[laurelizbru]

Hi! I just added three chickens to my flock. I had 1 chicken and 1 rooster for about a year. Then we added the three chickens Friday evening. My one chicken and rooster were two peas in a pod, but now I notice my rooster not bothering with her anymore since adding the three new girls. The three girls do not bother with her as well and I caught the rooster tonight not allowing my girl in the coop for nightly shut in. Is there anyone who could help me understand? Why would the rooster push her out? Why won't the other three girls accept her? What can I do to help them? Thanks!

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Sounds like you rooster traded flocks in a sense. Chickens are territorial as well as flock animals. So they defend their turf, and try to drive out intruders, unfortunately you existing hen got pushed out by the new birds. I'm not sure what you can do. Penning new birds side by side is recommended initially.

 

[laurelizbru]

Thank you for your thoughts. I feel terrible! My initial thinking was this would be good and now I'm regretting it. I don't want the chicken to be pushed out. I'm not sure where to go from here, but I appreciate your insights.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Unfortunately adding new birds doesn't always go well, especially adults. With enough time they should become a cohesive flock. You may have to play around with penning different hens together, maybe taking the meekest one of the new three and put her with your original hen to see if they bond.

Often roosters want to bring in new hens and will defend them from the existing flock which works nicely except for your case where there is only one hen.

Give it all time, take it slow and expect to have 2 separate pens if possible for a while.

Hopefully someone else will have a better idea for you.

 

[aart]

Welcome to BYC...sorry you're having troubles.
Chickens can be fickle and can be hard to understand their society and hierarchies.

Huh, that's an odd one....usually the existing birds fight off the new ones.
Not unusual for the male to welcome new females, but why he is rejecting his old mate?
It could be that something is not right with the old female, birds can drive off an unhealthy bird for reasons that are invisible to us.

Agrees with OHLD, may just take time and switching who is with who could help.
Might be a good idea to isolate the male and let the girls get bonded.

Telling us more about your flock and housing and how you managed the integration would help.
Pics of birds and housing always help.

 

[laurelizbru]

 

[laurelizbru]

 

[laurelizbru]

The first photo is of the three new girls and the rooster. The next is of the rooster and my one isolated girl prior to the new girls.

The chickens were brought in during daylight hours and were shut in to get used to their new surroundings for 2 days. I read after that it was better to do it at night and to separate them for 2 weeks. I don't have the means to do that.