My Rooster Included and Embraced A New Hen Into His Flock Of 3 Shaver Hens for 1 month...BUT>>>

[tapolla]

Peepee is a very dominant little black Pekin Hen who continuously bullied the other female Pekin around food and sleep time. The previous rooster never disciplined her. Her previous owner was going to get rid of Peepee because of her continuous bullying, We decided to bring her to our flock of 3 'Shaver Hens' and she found her place in the peking order and my rooster loved and embraced her...but...this little pekin bantam started pecking my big shaver hens. Bok bok tried to gently disciplin Peepee but after one month she kept trying to dominate the bigger hens and Bok Bok turned on her. He pecked her and it hurt Peepee.

How Can I Bring Peepee back into the 'Flock'? (the hens aren't pecking Peepee)...

 

[tapolla]

Can someone please show me how to help my hen?.

 

[chooks4life]

Maybe get her preggly and brooding, lol. Antisocial hens sometimes just need a clutch to settle them. Some hens are raging bullies until they become mothers.

In my experience some birds can't cohabitate, ever. Especially dominant little pekin hens. I just got them breeding to start their own flock of chooks that won't mind being dominated, since it's their mum doing it after all. If the rooster won't have her I'd get her a rooster of her own. I've had about 50 cockerels and adult males all cohabitating with never a fight, and the girls would pick and choose, and the roosters accepted that for the most part, though sometimes they got hung up on a hen who wouldn't have them. Generally a pekin or silky was the object of obsession.

Anyway if you don't want to breed her or don't want two roosters, the only suggestion I can think of is to replace the rooster or get rid of the hen. Disagreements can end up fatal. It's pretty unusual for a rooster to 'discipline' a hen in my experience, and if he's a full size rooster he can accidentally break her frame if they fight. All it takes is one decent kick from a full size chook to a pekin-sized one.

 

[tapolla]

We have closed Peepee off from 'Bok Bok and his 3 Shaver Hens'. Her encloser is close to there house and they seem to co exist quite well. My 3 shaver hens and my rooster bokbok, share the section with us but Peepee has a fenced off area now.

Actually Peepee was trying to sit on her tiny egg and my Shavers huge eggs until I took them from under her a couple of days before the drama.
Will my hen be lonely without a rooster?

 

[tapolla]

Peepee is losing a lot of her feathers since she's been separated from the Flock. Can someone tell me why ?

 

[chooks4life]

I don't know, but she may be going through a harder moult than usual due to stress or age. It's pretty common for that to happen. How old is she? I have seen a 13-year-old pekin who was still laying but had gone bare on large parts of her body and didn't regrow it, and moulting is supposedly one of the things that gets harder and harder on birds the older they get. Also I've noticed a lot of my hens go broody during their moult, and when the chicks are hatched they're usually feathered up again.

I think she may get lonely without a rooster, being a pekin. Layer breeds won't miss a rooster as much, usually, because they've had that social structure blueprint fairly bred out of them or weakened a least; my pekins and silkies ans silky/pekin/whatever mixes have never been happy when separated from their roosters. Hens that brood and mother a lot are often pretty driven toward mothering. I've let my banties sit full-size eggs without problems.

 

[tapolla]

She is a 1 year old. She still has a lot of feathers but her nest is filled with feathers too. We are coming into winter, so is moulting common for pekins at this time of year?.. I am almost tempted to see if she can be reintroduced. Thank you so much for replying. She looks lonely. How can I stop her from being dominant where food and sleep time is concerned. That is the only reason my rooster turned on her after 1 month.

 

[chooks4life]

I think moulting onset is determined by date of birth, genetics, health etc., i.e. a sick chook can go into a random moult, so can a very stressed one, and a chook hatched a the non-usual time of year will moult at a possibly inappropriate time. But maybe the other hens or the rooster are helping her moult? Or maybe she's sick or has a problem of some sort the rooster can perceive and that could be why he attacked her. There could be so many reasons... I've never seen a rooster object to a hen being dominant to other hens. I have got one now that's dumb enough to make every squabble a random free-for-all threesome. Not my breeding there.

As for reintroducing her, and getting her to be less dominant, I don't know. You could try separate watering/feeding/perching areas, even if they're near eachother, just to give the others a chance to move away and keep eating/drinking/roosting. She'd have to chase them, not remain lording it over one spot. I give my chooks multiple feed and perch options so the dominant ones can't own it all. As for getting her to be less dominant, I don't know what you could do, really, except maybe two things. One: get a feisty hen who will beat her up and change the social structure. Not that the pekin may back off the others even if that happens. Two: shackle her. Sometimes I do this with birds that are aggressive to others to an excessive degree and are willing and capable of harming them, namely turkeys. I have never done it to a little hen though, it could lead to her getting beaten to death. I've only used this when introducing a turkey, for instance, or a bird that won't get bullied, to a flock it has shown tendencies to be too aggressive to, but will be living with in future. Also when travelling a turkey hen with another hen she loved to beat up. Now even the feel of little anklets calms the savage beast, I no longer actually shackle her. She used to be a chronic to-the-death type bully given a chance.

What I do there, not that I actually recommend doing it to a pekin hen, is to get a soft, thick but fairly strong piece of rope of cord and tie it around each ankle, making sure that it is loose enough to slide up and down the leg between knee and ankle freely, but not loose enough to slip over the foot or up the leg past the knee; it also has to allow a good stride, the same amount as her normal walking, but will prevent her chasing another bird. You need to be very careful if you do this; watch that it's not slipping tighter or looser, make sure the knots are good, make sure she's not in an area where she can get caught on anything, and watch that the others don't suddenly want to kill your newly compromised bully. Personally I think that if your rooster doesn't get used to her the way she is she will either end up a reject or dead, or maybe you'll just have to get used to her the way she is... If you're not willing to try the other options I named, as in rehome her or get her starting her own separate flock, or whatever... Maybe over time she'll settle down anyway... Good luck with whatever you feel is the right decision.