Mean Old Hens

[klhgolden]

Hi everyone, first time poster here though I've been reading the BYC forum for years and it has taught me so much for which I am grateful. I have a problem now though that I need your help with.

The newest addition to our flock, a 10 month old bantam Cochin we named Pepper, just returned home from the vet after spending $500 to put her back together. The back of her neck was ripped open ear to ear and down to her shoulders by at least one (that I know for sure) and possibly 3 of our older standard breed hens. The wound was gruesome, but despite it's severity, no muscle or nerve structures appeared to be severed. The little bird hung in there when I irrigated it and isolated her in the infirmary (our walk-in shower), even drank and ate well while I tracked down a local vet who would care for chickens (thank you to the BYC post on lists of vets by state on this).

Pepper is my oldest daughter's chicken and today was her birthday. She is the most gentle, most sweet bird in our flock of 7 and she clearly had no intention of throwing in the towel on her life today so even though my stomach turned at the estimate, we gave the go. The wound is cleaned and stitched and she is home in the infirmary with a healthy appetite. She will remain there for the next two weeks recovering and will receive daily antibiotics and lots of TLC until she's healed.

My question is this: Do I re-home this lovely little bird or do I get rid of the thugs and rebuild our flock with new, bantam Cochin friendly birds?

On the one hand, I'd like to keep her but I do worry that she'll be victimized again. Three of the hens I know are okay (she lived in the hen yard in a partitioned section for weeks with these hens holding visiting hours and one of them as a 24-hour roommate). The other three, one for sure (Barred Rock), have shown aggression and pecked the feathers off her head when I tried to introduce them. I applied pine tar to her head but that didn't seem to stop them. I feel responsible for her and I don't ever want her to go through that kind of nightmare again. I toy with the idea of keeping her inside with us, but that's no life for a chicken. She'd have to be in a cage all the time (we have dogs) and wouldn't get enough interaction.

On the other hand, how do I know the home she's going to is going to be any better? And should I eliminate the evil Barred Rock regardless, lest she victimize another newcomer in the future? Should I stick with standard size and expect to be okay? We started with 4 hens originally 5 years ago and we have introduced 4 new birds since then with no problems until this bantam.

These birds are our pets so no matter which choice we make it's hard. Thanks for your advice and opinions.

 

[kellysmall87]

Sorry to hear about this, and your impending vet bill! Well done you on getting her well again. I spent £40 on my hen after a Fox attack - but that sounds cheap to me now after reading your grand total!
I would say that you can't put a new chicken into an already established flock without gradually integrating them first. So, what I do is keep them separated by chicken wire for a few weeks and then integrate them when I am present. Otherwise, your existing flock - through no fault of their own - attacks the bird as they see her as an intruder, a competitor and another hen in prime spot for being top in the pecking order. Hope this helps, Kelly.

 

[Time-Out]

Kelly's right. If you know of one main aggressor, can you remove her for a month and place her elsewhere? Hopefully, that'll give the victim time to integrate the flock and set the meanie at the bottom of the pecking order when you pop her back in.

I had a hen, who grew up with all the others, that got attacked too. The vet bill went into the triple figures and she was terrified of the mere sight of another chicken. She's now reintegrated the flock and seems ok. She'll always be at the bottom, but I reintegrated her with some young Vorwerks she liked, so at least she has SOME friends in there.

I found that having them to free-range over a large-ish area helped to distract them from one another. It was a new territory, big enough to not get in each other's way and lots of things to do. They roamed that area for a couple of weeks before all moving in together.

 

[LizzieJ]

Hi when we integrated our new girls to our flock we allowed them to mix in open space (attended at all times in case of fights) during the day but put them in seperate hen houses at night, eventually they started going to the same hen house at sundown of their own accord and they seem to have settled in nicely. we still have the odd battle over who gets the feed first and our alpha hen likes to throw her weight around now and then but it has been (luckily so far!

) fairly uneventful and with no injuries. I am worried about introducing the chicks in a few weeks but will cross that bridge when we come to it. I think allowing them to integrate for short times during the day and seperating them at night seems to have worked for us. i know its not always possible because of space or housing issues but i hope this helped in some way?
Good luck!
Liz x