Need Help with Divas

[MyRedStarz]

Hi...
I have a question on Hen behaviors. On Monday, one of my chickens was attacked by my dog. Thank goodness she wasn't too injured. Just lost a lot of feathers. I separated her from the rest of the chickens (I have 3 total - all 2 years old) to make sure she was well. She has been eating/drinking fine and noted no wounds on her. Today I merged her back into the main coop (5 days later). Seems one of the girls is picking on her terribly...pecking, being aggressive, not letting her up into the coop from the run, etc. Just wondering if this is normal. Do they need to reestablish a pecking order when one is away for a few days? In my opinion, the one that got hurt was the "head hen". Any insight would be helpful...thanks

Desiree

 

[donrae]

They just need to re-establish who's boss. Since she was gone, the other hens will test her and see where she now falls in the ranking of the flock.

I had something similar happen recently, a barred rock hen got out and into the neighbor's yard. Since the neighbor has a Doberman, a pit bull and a doxie, I mentally wrote the hen off. Well, next day she's trying to get back through the fence into my yard! She was a little chewed up and kind of shocky. I blue-koted her and tried putting her back in general pop, but they went after her. I kept her in sick bay for 2 weeks, totally healed up. Put her back in general pop and one hen in particular started going for her. The barred rock didn't back down at all! Then, the roosters got involved. I have a head roo, two juveniles and the deposed king. The juvies were trying to separate the two hens that were fighting, the head roo was trying to chase the juvies away from the hens, the barred rock was sure she had to kick the other hen's butt to show she was still boss, then the roosters decide they'll just mount everyone and be done with it, but the head roo's still knocking the juvies off the hens..........it was really something to watch the dynamics! Anyway, it all lasted less than an hour and everyone was good. The barred rock and the other hen still sparred a little the next day, but that was last weekend and things are smooth now.