Lonely Chicken

[FaithArthur123999]

Hello, I put a post up a while ago about my hen (babs) who suffered a prolapse and result in that she was given the implant to stop laying, she fell into a moult and was severely bullied by the other hens. Due to the bullying we had to seperate her completely. Babs has now been living solo for about a month and she is doing well. During that month we have been trying so hard to slowly intergrate her back into the flock, however we are having no luck. This isnt down to the flock, but Babs being absolutely terrified of them. The rest of the flock started to leave her alone but babs is hysterical when near them. Babs is now permanently free ranging in our part of the garden but when I let the other girls out, babs squeals and runs to our back door and is flapping and jumping trying to get in, at this point the other girls arent anywhere near her and they arent interested in her. When I go to put babs down by the other girls, she starts squealing and trying to jump back in my arms, I have never seen a chicken this scared of other hens. To stop her being so lonely shes been spending time with the ducks.

Some people on here have suggested rehoming her but I do want to avoid that if possible as she comes running over to us and she loves to sit with us so there is a nice personal attachment, however I know she needs company. Some others have also suggested rehoming another hen for babs but both of these options dont help the fact that she is terrified of other hens. She seems quite happy and it enjoying time in the garden with the ducks but just cant seem to get her back with the other hens.

Has anyone experienced this before or how to help a lone hen? Shes starting to become more of a house hen at the moment but would ideally like her back with the girls.

 

[sourland]

Why not just allow her to stay with the ducks?

 

[FaithArthur123999]

Why not just allow her to stay with the ducks?

Hello, that was an idea of mine however she is happy around them when the ducks are out in the main part of their garden, however when I return the ducks to their section of the garden, I went to put her in with them, she started to freak out and with all the fear of being in a slightly smaller place with them, she was jumping around trying to get out and she then fell in the pond, thankfully I was there to get her out. Maybe over a bit more time she may get used to being with them a bit more but for now she wont go in with them, and the pond does worry me.

 

[aldarita]

I'm experiencing something similar. I have a little flock of 4 young hens (18 months and 22 months old) in one of my yards, they have been living together since they were 3 weeks old. I had to separate one due to bumble foot surgery. The vet put her on oral antibiotics for 2 weeks (not doing that again) when I brought her back to her flock she badly attacked the main hen. Ana (the main hen) is a sweetheart. She defended herself but ultimately lost the battle and gave up. That was ok but my recovered hen kept on attacking her fiercely even though Ana was running away from her. I separated Hilda (the reintroduced one). She's now living by herself for about 3 weeks. She has her own coop and yard and a fence where she can see the other 3 hens everyday. I have attempted reintroduction twice and same thing happens, Hilda chases after Ana and attacks her right away.
I feel bad about Hilda being by herself but she's healthy, acts normal and lays eggs. I would certainly like for her to be with her flock but at this point, she's staying by herself. I think as long as she sees the others, she will be fine.

 

[rosemarythyme]

Since she's okay with the ducks in the main part of the garden, maybe keep that as the only time she has full access to them. Otherwise, she can stay wherever you currently have her housed where she's alone and separate, as it seems to be a high stress situation for her to be around the chickens or the ducks otherwise. This way she still has some socialization with other birds, but without the stress of being housed with them.

This is all dependent on you being able to micromanage the situation of course.

 

[Tonyroo]

Sometimes it's handy to build a partition in the coop for nervous hen or stressed out hen. It allows her to feel safe while being near the flock.

I did this for one of my hen cause she was in the same situation as the OP. After about 6 or so months she was able to roost with the flock.

 

[TinyRaptorDodos]

I had a hen similar but not quite the same… she was much smaller then her old flock and had a lot of her back feathers ripped out, all my ladies would free range so I but her with my other 2 month old (her name was actually also Babs, short for Babushka) and they would hang out by themselves away from the flock until it came to food, Babs died a month ago and now Sunny the scared one is living in the coop with the rest of the flock and doing just fine, it’s been about two or three months since I got her. She loved people more and was terrified of my hens, definitely not to that point of hysterics but she wouldn’t get remotely close to any but Babs and today she seems to be friends with one of my worst hens when it comes to agression and doesn’t like leaving to flock for too long, she even likes Yves