New to Chickens Orpington being picked on

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janes Chickens

janes Chickens

Hatching
5 Years
Oct 26, 2014
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Hi Everyone, we are first time chicken owners, have just brought the following chickens yesterday
2 x Aracana females - 12mth
1 x Black Orpington - 12mths
2 x Light Sussex Corination - 12mths
1 x gold laced Wyandotte

they are in a decent sized coop with laying boxes and scratching ground, one by one they are all picking on the orpington pecking and lifting they legs. after a couple of hours yesterday she had blood on her beck so I put her in a cage inside the cage so that they could see her but not hurt her. this morning her beck looks fine no sign of any blood, so I let her out again under supervision. slowly they all have had a peck at her, and now she is on top of a laying box to get away from them. She is the sweetest thing, should I just keep checking her for any blood/distress... as I can see them from the house and will go out every hours, or should I just let them sort it out? I obviously wouldn't leave her to suffer. I really don't want to have to get rid of her as she is the best with the kids!

Help!
 
It sounds like they are setting their pecking order; but I would still keep a eye on her for a few days. I had a younger hen get into the territory of the older chickens and they peck her to death before I knew there was a problem. now they all blend together .The Orpingtons has a sweet nature anyway ,maybe keep her separate sometime to give her a rest from bulling.
 
Hello there and welcome to BYC!
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I agree, this is a pecking order thing, however I would not let them pick on her in my coop. Usually there is one bird that starts it and then the others follow along. Figure out who starts this pecking and separate them out. See if that helps the Orp to fit in. If this is the case, keep this meanie in the cage for a month. This should help with the pecking order. If there are two of them picking on her, cage them both. You may need to cage them out of site of the coop completely. You can let them sleep on the roost bar at night, but back in the cage they go during the day.

If all else fails, I use pinless peepers on the meanies.

These will stop all aggression. A bit extreme, but I don't tolerate aggression, fighting or blood in my coop. With pinless peepers, they can see up, down and to the sides, but not directly in front of them to fire off their beaks in aggressive ways.

Good luck and never let birds be bullied. Cage the bullies and let the lower ranking birds stay in the flock.
 
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Agree, you have been given good advice. If you do see any blood, spray with blue note, consider isolating the Buff intermittently until they can learn to get along.

good luck with your new flock integration.
 

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