lone easter egger - did I do the right thing?

[Dhkoenig]

Hi All - sorry I have posted twice today. I had a flock of 4 hens and last August I brought in two Easter eggers that were a few weeks old. I quarantined them for 4 weeks, then did the look but don't touch step, and then I integrated them without issue. The newbies (Babs and Sir Winston Churchill) and the OGs basically just hung out in two different cliques. Sometimes my top hen (Franny) and Sir Winston would perch together and Babs seemed jealous - she would try to climb under Franny to get to Sir. Meanwhile Sir hit puberty with a vengeance and started tearing the combs of Franny and my other leghorn. I would watch him attack them to mate and grab them by the combs. It was brutal. He was completely non-aggressive toward me or toward the hens when not trying to mate. But he began to want to mate all day and my girls hens were getting really bad. I had no way of separating them without Sir being outside all night or in the wind/cold/ice during the day because only one of my runs is covered. I found an AMAZING farm for Winston. I felt really good about it because it was a gorgeous sprawling farm, the owner was a total animal lover and I could tell by the way she was holding him and introducing me to the baby goats etc that he would have a good life - probably even better than being here. BUT...here is where the story finally comes to a point....POOR BABS! I feel so sorry for her! She lost her BFF! She used to perch with him during the day, hang out with him everywhere - the other four would basically ignore them but they had each other. Now along with my lowest hen, Babs is totally alone. They chase her away from food (I have lots of food and water places for her to get it) they just chase her away in general just for sport. Even my lowest hen Nelly who used to get bullied at least hangs out with the other three original girls. Did I do the wrong thing not asking the farm to also take Babs? I MIGHT be seeing Babs and Nelly starting to get closer to maybe hanging out together but that may just be wishful thinking. Do you think she will ever integrate into the flock so that they treat her as one of them? She just seems like such the odd man out. Sorry for the long post but any advice or knowledge about how they socialize would be helpful.

 

[fin-dachickmasta]

Throw some treats like sunflower seeds and/or mealworms for a few weeks and she will be fine. The treats need to be thrown on the ground and spread around. While they eat the others will be busy and will most likely let her eat closer and closer until she is fine. My chickens do that when we add new hens.

 

[Auntiejessi3]

The pecking order is constantly changing, my 3 littles from last year used to be their own clique, now they are part of the big girls' flock, each one with their own place within the pecking order. And I think rehoming your roo was a good choice if he was terrorizing your ladies.

 

[Yardmom]

Your pullet will be fine, but It takes a while for young pullets to be accepted into the ranks with the hens. Even if you had several pullets the older hens would push them away. Usually a bit after pullets have started laying they will start mixing more with the adult birds and find their place in the ranks. Don't be surprised if you see her scuffling more with the bottom hen as she finds her place in the pecking order.

 

[Dhkoenig]

Thanks Yardmom and Auntiejessi3 - Of course the day I finally posted about this - she seemed a bit more mixed in! She took a dirt bath and didn't get kicked out and tonight on the chicken cam she is snuggling with Nelly! But Yardmom - thanks for the warning before I get too excited about that LOL