Hi, everyone...just joined BYC yesterday...we're actually having a problem with one of our hens and a friend who also raises chickens told me about the BYC website...my husband and I got the first two hens and the rooster from a neighbor who was getting out of the chicken business about 3 weeks ago and then we got 6 more chicks a few days later...the hens are white and I don't remember what breed they are, but the chicks are Rhode Island Reds, Plymouth Rocks and Arcanaus...I also don't know what breed the rooster is...everything seemed to be going well until we discovered yesterday that one of the Rhode Island Red chicks had had her tail feathers plucked out and it seemed that the other chicks were picking on her...we immediately separated her from the rest, blue koted her tail and set up temporary housing for her...this afternoon, we blue koted her again and put her back in with the rest of the chickens and stood back to see what would happen...it didn't take long until we noticed that the other Rhode Island Red chick was picking on her again and we also observed her picking on the others, but not nearly as bad...we immediately removed the offending Rhode Island Red and within just a few minutes, everything seemed to settle down...none of the other chicks were picking on the injured chick and everybody was getting along just fine...it seems that we have a chicken yard bully...since we are new to raising chickens, any ideas and/or suggestions on what we should do would be welcomed...
! Pleased you joined us! Sorry to hear about your flock bully! I think you are doing the right thing - keeping the mean one away from the picked on one(s). Maybe with time the flock will coalesce and the mean one will re-enter the flock at the bottom of the pecking order. Is there a big age difference? Sometimes a larger or older bird will boss the others around.
Thanks for your response...we've had to separate the picked on chick again...the bully was really picking on her this morning and upon inspection, we noticed that she'd drawn blood again...we're going to treat the injured chick for a couple of days, put her back in with the group and see how it goes...if the bully goes for her again, we'll have to separate her until we can decide what to do...I guess we could section off a small section of the yard and put her in it and see how that goes...we're really new to the chicken raising thing, so it's kinda like try this and see if it works...if not, try something else...thanks again for your response and your support!
