lonely pullet too attached to me

[_Lyndsey_]

I have a 16 week speckled sussex pullet called Edwina who seems to think i'm her Mam. I'm worried she's stressed and lonley.

She was in with 2 sisters until they both died suddenly at about 12 weeks. She's still too small to introduce her to my two older girls, so sadly she is alone at night in her own coop at the moment. In the day time her run is right next to the older girls and i've started letting them into the garden together when I can supervise them. Although cute at first, her behavior is now starting to worry me as I think she must be quite stressed. She jumps onto me constantly (even when i'm stood up and i have to catch her to prevent her falling and injuring herself). She tries to burry her head into my "feathers" and hide under my "wings". At bed time I find her outside of the coop in the dark making very sad sounding chirps and calls, i can only get her to settle by gently stroking her head until she falls alseep and then put her into the coop with a hot water bottle to keep her warm and give comfort. Otherwise she just runs back out of the coop and tries to jump onto me. Or jumps into the coop walls trying desperately to get to me. Before she lost her sisters she found her way to the coop at night just fine, and was cuddly but not as needy as this. How can i help her with the stress of loosing her sisters and being alone until she is big enough to integrate into my older flock? I know lone introductions aren't good, but i don't really have any other choice.

 

[_-Captain BRM-_]

She had other friends it's just something that happens. Ive had it happen before with my two Orpingtons. It just something she will have to get over. Meanwhile give her loads of love. What a sweet hen!

 

[swamphiker]

Your lone pullet is likely to be stressed out for awhile, but I don't think there's really a way around it. At 16 weeks she should be big enough to fend for herself with your older birds. The older chickens will pick on her for awhile, but as long as they aren't causing real injuries I wouldn't do anything about it. Some things you can do to lessen conflict between the new pullet and the established flock would be to make sure there is enough space and structure in the run for your pullet to run away and hide, and to put out multiple containers of food and water so that they aren't all fighting for access to the same feeder/waterer at the same time.

If they have all been exposed to each other for a couple of weeks already, I would simply put them in together. You could always keep a separate run and put the pullet in for an hour or two a day to make sure she is getting enough food and water. They will figure out a way to all live together.

 

[_-Captain BRM-_]

If they free range in the day, putting her in a dog kennel in the coop at night would help a lot. Then you can let her out to free range and she can easily escape from any mean hens.

 

[rosemarythyme]

Not sure what you're waiting for but I'd integrate her now, she's already spending some time with the others so the process has already begun, no reason to keep delaying it.

 

[_Lyndsey_]

Just to update you all on the progress
Thanks everyone for the advice - i think you're right that i was being over cautious. I switched her sleeping arrangements so she was in a wired off section of the main coop then after a few nights of that removed the wires. They now get on well over night but are still chasing her during the morning and keep to themselves in the run. A much improved situation to where we were at last month. Now just leaving them to it and hoping in time the chasing and minor squabbles die down a bit too. She's still just as cuddly with me - but now i can enjoy that without worrying that it's a sign she's lonely or stressed.

 

[Mrs. K]

Flip them, put the other girls in her coop, and put her in the new coop. Do this for a couple of days. Then add one of the older girls to her in the coop, leaving the other one out. Wait for it to settle a couple of days, then put all of them together.

This lets her explore the new coop without being chased, and develop the territorial right to be there. This will discombobulate the older birds, by being in a new place. Reducing their territorial rights to the main coop.

I do this when I have a lone bird, and have had very good results.

Mrs K