My Chicken Is a Loner?

[CoastalWolfDen]

I have a flock of six 7 or 8 week chickens that I got all around the same time as chicks. When I brought them home, one of the chicks was a lot smaller than the rest, even though she was “allegedly” the same age. She didn’t seem to be thriving competing with the other chicks, and my neighbor’s granddaughter is super into animals and was begging for a chick, so I gave the whimsy chick to her for a few weeks, thinking some one on one attention from a doting little girl would help. Well, it did. The chicken grew as expected and forged a bond with the little girl.

Now here’s the problem. Neighbor girl had to go home a couple of weeks ago, so Peeps came back to me. She’s healthy, but has no interest in her flock mates, and they completely ignore her. She peeps all the time, as if she’s looking for her flock, and is only quiet if she’s roosting on my shoulder. While I find that adorable, I feel like she deserves chicken friends, not just people friends.

So, I went to Wilco and picked up 3 new chicks, thinking I’d put her in the brooder with them and even though she’d be a bit bigger it’d work out (its worked for me before following a coyote massacre) and she’d have a new clique within the flock.

Nope. She wants no part of the new babies, won’t even go near the coop (we have a brooder inside the coop) and is now fully free-ranging in the yard. She sleeps in a tree and hangs out alone all day.

I spend a fair amount of time in the yard and she hangs around me when I’m out there, but I’m worried about her…what should I do? I’m afraid that if she has no friends and won’t coop up at night I’ll find her frozen to death come winter. Has this happened to anyone else?

 

[16 and me]

Not exactly, but I'm dealing with a similar situation. I have a flock all raised together, only one went broody last year. She hatched 6 eggs - 5 of them roos & I culled them, as I already had 2 roos in a flock of 13 hens. So 1 little pullet without her brothers. She's a loner, shy, and hangs out near the edge of the flock. She does stay near the Roo I notice, where the hens tens to leave her be, rather than risk him putting them in their place. She took to roosting outside while all the others are in the coop. I have allowed it, but I think it may be encouraging her isolation, instead of working things out with tthe flock in the coop at bedtime. I'm discouraging it now to see if it helps. Plus I have a hen sitting, was hoping the new chicks would help.

 

[CoastalWolfDen]

Not exactly, but I'm dealing with a similar situation. I have a flock all raised together, only one went broody last year. She hatched 6 eggs - 5 of them roos & I culled them, as I already had 2 roos in a flock of 13 hens. So 1 little pullet without her brothers. She's a loner, shy, and hangs out near the edge of the flock. She does stay near the Roo I notice, where the hens tens to leave her be, rather than risk him putting them in their place. She took to roosting outside while all the others are in the coop. I have allowed it, but I think it may be encouraging her isolation, instead of working things out with tthe flock in the coop at bedtime. I'm discouraging it now to see if it helps. Plus I have a hen sitting, was hoping the new chicks would help.

Coda (short for Codependent-we renamed her) absolutely will not stand to be in the coop. We have a wolf dog who lives outside so keeping the coop impenetrable hasn’t been a big deal for us - raccoons and coyotes don’t come into a wolf’s yard…and wouldn’t last long if they did. Point is, she can get out of the coop on her own and does every time I try to lock her in to work it out. I’ve even put her inside a high-walled Rubbermaid with her own bedding thinking if she could just get used to the noise of the flock around her it’d work itself out. But that night the rest of the flock wouldn’t go to their coop. I don’t understand it.

Sometimes she even gets into the rabbit run rather than hang out with the other chickens.

 

[16 and me]

Coda (short for Codependent-we renamed her) absolutely will not stand to be in the coop. We have a wolf dog who lives outside so keeping the coop impenetrable hasn’t been a big deal for us - raccoons and coyotes don’t come into a wolf’s yard…and wouldn’t last long if they did. Point is, she can get out of the coop on her own and does every time I try to lock her in to work it out. I’ve even put her inside a high-walled Rubbermaid with her own bedding thinking if she could just get used to the noise of the flock around her it’d work itself out. But that night the rest of the flock wouldn’t go to their coop. I don’t understand it.

Sometimes she even gets into the rabbit run rather than hang out with the other chickens.

Poor Coda.