Its been going on since her mother abandoned them. The other 3 chicks fended for themselves absolutely fine apart from this one pullet who was being bullied. I ignored it thinking that she was just the bottom of the pecking order, but one morning I went outside and found her hiding behind the compost heap away from the other birds. She had been scalped, but we kept her indoors and it healed fine.
The pullet is a pekin bantam mix and the bullying started very quickly after I culled her father, the main rooster. There were no issues before then and she would spend a lot of time with him.
During the healing period she could see the other chickens in the run through the wire while she was loose and she would stand by the run and they could see her. They would still try to peck her through the wire and one hen actually managed to grab her and pull her against the wire when she strayed too close. All of the hens and both roosters are involved in the bullying.
Its now got to the stage where she is 6 months old and she is sleeping in the dog kennel with the dogs, but if I try to put her in with the chickens she freaks out completely and dashes around the run, bumping into the other chickens (who respond to this by pecking her) and squawking. She will hurl herself at the side of the run flapping and screaming and then of course this attracts the attention of the other chickens even more.
There is no ring leader, it is all of them from the highest to the lowest in the pecking order including her much smaller pekin bantam mother.
There does not appear to be anything wrong with this pullet apart from her fear of other chickens. She is fairly confident around all the other animals and displays her hackles to wild birds "on her patch" and the quail. She can see and hear fine and she has never displayed any internal issues. The only thing I can think of is that she is our only ginger chicken.
I've tried reintroducing her four times in four months, twice sprayed thoroughly with anti peck and still they peck at her and she just races around before cowering in a corner or somewhere out of their reach and they still seek her out to attack her. But if she is on a perch I have actually seen the other chickens standing beneath her and jumping up trying to grab at her feet like shes some sort of toy.
I really want her back in the flock. I've tried socializing her, extending the run and coop so that it is three times as large (about 20ft for 8 chickens with tunnels and 3 separate areas) building up her confidence and making her taste foul. Nothing has had the end result of her going back into the flock and now she just wanders around the garden with the two dogs.
She is much more confident now than the shivering, screaming wreck that she was 4 months ago. I'm worried that she has had permanent mental scarring. She is just terrified of the other birds when she knows that they can reach her.
The last time I tried introducing her was yesterday afternoon and that is why I'm now on here seeking assistance.
As soon as I put her in, she freaked and began charging around in a wild panic and the other birds immediately laid into her, kicking and pecking at her like she was an object or live food.
I culled one of the two cockerels today, is now a good time to reintroduce her as the pecking order will change?
I can't start a second flock and her genetics are valuable to my mutt line that I'm breeding for us. I'm trying to breed small dual purpose birds since their are only two people in our household. Our other hens are a leghorn, a medium mutt, an EE, the pekin bantam and a then there are the second generation of birds. My pekin cross rooster that I culled this morning had an impressive amount of meat for his size, so I am pleased so far. It was much better than the amount of meat that you would find on a pure pekin bantam cockerel. I've kept the larger cockerel back for breeding.
The wound from the other chickens was weeping and bleeding so I treated her with poultry antibacterial powder.
Her father - wish I'd kept him now, he was always such a sweet boy.
Hazel in the house
The pullet is a pekin bantam mix and the bullying started very quickly after I culled her father, the main rooster. There were no issues before then and she would spend a lot of time with him.
During the healing period she could see the other chickens in the run through the wire while she was loose and she would stand by the run and they could see her. They would still try to peck her through the wire and one hen actually managed to grab her and pull her against the wire when she strayed too close. All of the hens and both roosters are involved in the bullying.
Its now got to the stage where she is 6 months old and she is sleeping in the dog kennel with the dogs, but if I try to put her in with the chickens she freaks out completely and dashes around the run, bumping into the other chickens (who respond to this by pecking her) and squawking. She will hurl herself at the side of the run flapping and screaming and then of course this attracts the attention of the other chickens even more.
There is no ring leader, it is all of them from the highest to the lowest in the pecking order including her much smaller pekin bantam mother.
There does not appear to be anything wrong with this pullet apart from her fear of other chickens. She is fairly confident around all the other animals and displays her hackles to wild birds "on her patch" and the quail. She can see and hear fine and she has never displayed any internal issues. The only thing I can think of is that she is our only ginger chicken.
I've tried reintroducing her four times in four months, twice sprayed thoroughly with anti peck and still they peck at her and she just races around before cowering in a corner or somewhere out of their reach and they still seek her out to attack her. But if she is on a perch I have actually seen the other chickens standing beneath her and jumping up trying to grab at her feet like shes some sort of toy.
I really want her back in the flock. I've tried socializing her, extending the run and coop so that it is three times as large (about 20ft for 8 chickens with tunnels and 3 separate areas) building up her confidence and making her taste foul. Nothing has had the end result of her going back into the flock and now she just wanders around the garden with the two dogs.
She is much more confident now than the shivering, screaming wreck that she was 4 months ago. I'm worried that she has had permanent mental scarring. She is just terrified of the other birds when she knows that they can reach her.
The last time I tried introducing her was yesterday afternoon and that is why I'm now on here seeking assistance.
As soon as I put her in, she freaked and began charging around in a wild panic and the other birds immediately laid into her, kicking and pecking at her like she was an object or live food.
I culled one of the two cockerels today, is now a good time to reintroduce her as the pecking order will change?
I can't start a second flock and her genetics are valuable to my mutt line that I'm breeding for us. I'm trying to breed small dual purpose birds since their are only two people in our household. Our other hens are a leghorn, a medium mutt, an EE, the pekin bantam and a then there are the second generation of birds. My pekin cross rooster that I culled this morning had an impressive amount of meat for his size, so I am pleased so far. It was much better than the amount of meat that you would find on a pure pekin bantam cockerel. I've kept the larger cockerel back for breeding.
The wound from the other chickens was weeping and bleeding so I treated her with poultry antibacterial powder.
Her father - wish I'd kept him now, he was always such a sweet boy.
Hazel in the house
