Lonely Girl

[terjul]

I have a flock of 16 week old pullets and 3 older girls. One of my younger girls was getting picked on pretty badly by all the young ones, to the point they were pulling out her tail feathers and she was bleeding. We took her out for a day to fix her up and let her recuperate. All was well, until we came home one day and found that she was pinned to the ground in the corner and all the young girls were standing on her going to town. We removed her right away and again fixed her up and this time she was coughing and I knew why they were hurting her, because she was sick. It's been about 9 days and she's healthy again and has put on weight. She free ranges with the older girls with no problem and they dont bother her, so we wanted to do the same with the young ones before putting her back in the flock coop, but they weren't having it. As soon as they saw her, they were merciless and chased her and was pecking her. We stopped it and picked her up. We've tried two more times, even when they go to roost, but it's a no go. I dont know what to do now. I dont think they're ever going to accept her back into the flock. My heart breaks for her because she is just the sweetest thing and she's so lonely. Is there anything I can do?

 

[aart]

You might try putting one of the other birds in with her, see how it goes, let them settle for a week or two. Then bring another one or two in, let them settle, then put all four back with the flock.

Would probably help if both groups were penned next to each other so they could see but not touch.

Read up on integration, there lots of different ways to accomplish this.
Advanced Search>Titles Only> integration

Good Luck!

 

[terjul]

Thank you so much for the link. We moved her coop next to the big one, so they see each other daily. Some of the other girls actually tried to peck her through the fence. We did try putting another sweet girl in with her, but it didn't work out, as she turned on her. I just don't know why they won't accept her anymore.

 

[aart]

Sometimes chicken will try to remove a weak link from the flock. If she's sick, or carrying some illness, they may detect it.
Or sometimes a bird just needs to be removed from the flock because they don't fit in.