Mean Girls Making Trouble

[Gcleare]

We've had chickens for twenty years, and whenever we got new chicks they blended in fine with the rest of the flock. Not this time, though. We have 18 mixed breed girls and their rooster, Brewster, who are three years old. And we have 8 ladies and their rooster, Harry, who are last spring's chicks and full grown now. They are Buff Orpingtons and Ameraucanas, sweet and docile. When we first released them into the pen last summer, half-grown, the older hens immediately murdered one of them. Since then, they have stayed a separate flock, kept away from the food and water until the others come outside. The two roosters seem to get along fine, but the older hens remind me of some people I knew in High School....the mean girls! Now one particular New Hampshire Red and her sidekick, a Wyandotte, are pulling feathers off the butt and neck of one of the newbies, pecking until she bleeds, and they torture her all day long. Her moaning and crying is horrible. I made some little hiding places for her in the pen, but they still pester her and won't let her eat or drink. I have had to remove her from the pen to her own cage, where she is healing. She is so sweet, she let me pick her up and carry her without a flap, grateful to be rescued. We also have 15 new chicks in the biddy cage who will need to integrate with the flock in a month or so. I'm worried now! We have a 200 square foot chicken house and 120 square foot outdoor pen, which we are expanding. Should I get rid of the Mean Girls, too? They are trouble makers!

 

[sourland]

Do an on site search on Pin-Less Peepers. They may help with this problem.