Lost my baby

[katssmilin]

We recently aquired 4 chicks about two months old. 3 freedom ranger hens and one chick that was found wounded in a pasture. She was an all white chick who leaned to one side and had a limp. She was named ilean buy the former owners. She was doing quite well eating like a horse and getting around as best she could. Her feathers were coming in nicely. We introduced them to our 8 month old americana and RIR mixed hen via a split coop a week ago. Yesterday we took out the divider . Today I found her outside under the coop and our 8 month old had pecked her head open. Her breathing was very shallow. We decided to put her out of her misery. My question is now that my 8 month old has pecked and tasted blood will she terrorize the other three hens? Is she wowrth keeping? She should start laying eggs in the next month or so. I 'm so distraught after caring for ilean. I don't even want to look at my 8 month old. I realize there is a pecking order but I never in my wildest dreams thought they would peck to bring blood. I honestly thought they would protect one that was injured. Guess I have a lot to learn.

 

[rmack2]

Chickens will canabalize each other. I dont know if the 8 month old will terrorize the other three, but from my own experience, any hen that shows a weakness, or is injured or bleeding is subject to being pecked by the other hens, and injured further. I have had to isolate injured hens a couple of times to prevent the others from killing it. They do have a pecking order and will each enforce it on a reintroduced hen, usually by pecking the back of the other hens crop and even twisting it and drawing a spot of blood. In reintroducing a recovered hen I have had to remove #1 hen for a few hours and allow the others to forrage free range together. The reintroduced hen may try to gain back its rank by fighting so I've carefully supervised this. You might try putting the divider back up and taking it down for an hour or two at a time while you monitor them. Your 8month old is probably #1 hen right now, though as the others grow that might change, and she might end up getting badly pecked. Hope this helps.

 

[katssmilin]

Thanks for replying I just feel so bad that I didn't catch the pecking and prevent it. The three hens that we got with ilean seemed to protect her and I thought the older one would to

 

[CMV]

I have had a couple experiences with hens pecking other birds. One ended badly and one ended not well. The bully may not ever show that behavior again, or may turn into the biggest jerk in the yard. You are going to need to monitor the situations when a new/ailing bird is in the flock. Maybe separate the bully if she continues to show signs of aggression to other birds. I still have one of my bullies. She has spent more of her life in quarantine than any other birds I have ever owned. She has mellowed over time (5+ years), but I still have to watch her whenever a new group of birds is introduced.

I am sorry for your loss.

Good luck.