new hen is a bully!

[chickadee mamma]

Maybe I'm rushing things? A have a young pullet (17/18 weeks) and two chicks (not sure gender yet) who get along great! Our neighbor purchased the mother of our pullet sane time we did. He had trouble with her getting picked on so bad and said she's such a SWEET thing he wanted to get her out of his flock and asked if we wanted to try her with ours. We've kept her separate from the others for about a week, they can see/Snell each other through the chicken wire and things are fine, until we put them together. She is a total brat to the other birds! There's no 'sweetness'! She doesn't like us humans, she seeks out the chicks to peck them and runs everyone into the coop! Am I expecting too much? maybe I'm rushing the integration of her or is it just a bad fit!? How does a hen go from the picked on submissive sweetheart to the coop bully!?

 

[loveourbirds]

its part of the pecking order process. if one gets beat up to bad, separate and treat as needed. they will eventually find who is "top hen" and settle down.

 

[chickadee mamma]

I get it. I'm just concerned with #1 is she not happy with us. Or friend said she was an absolute sweetheart. And #2 the pullet and two chicks are so much younger than her. There's no one challenging her authority, why is she actively going after them?

 

[Mrs. K]

I am amazed that the 17-18 week old pullet is getting along well with the chicks. How old are the chicks? Chickens coming from a lower pecking order, are desperate to get out of that situation. If you add hens to that flock, the most picked on, often becomes the meanest bully to the new hen.

I think things will settle down, but you must have a wide discrepency in sizes of birds, as they get more to an even size, and more time together, they probably will mesh, but it could be some amount of time.

If you don't like the bird, don't keep it.

Mrs k

 

[chickadee mamma]

Last night our pullet 'Ginger' sat on the roost with a chick under each wing! She is very sweet to them! The new hen, Lucy, is doing better today so far. Letting them down to scratch around in the run. I'll give it more time. I did wonder if I was rushing things or expecting too much too soon.