One problem hen both with chickens and goats.

[Stonerowfarm]

I have a mixed flock of 28 mostly black sex links, 12 of these are two years old and the other 16 and about 18 weeks old. We put everyone out together yesterday and cooped them all together. There is one problem. While everyone seemed to settle in fairly well, other than the chasing and blustering, one was getting beaten up badly. After just a short while I checked on everyone and Ginger came running up to me being chased by three other hens. I took her out and sure enough she was bloodied under one eye and on the other side under her ear. My concern was that if they would do this to her in such a short time frame, what might they do overnight.

So, I took her out of the coop and tried her in with the goats. There are five adults and four young kids. The goats were a little weary at first, but within a short time adapted to having Ginger in with them. Because I wasn't set up for a chicken in the goat pen, I put her in a separate cage overnight with her food and water. This morning I went out and took her out of the cage and put her back in with the goats. Within minutes she was ruffling her feathers and chasing one of the babies trying to peck her.

HELP. I don't know what to do at this point. She is a sweet hen and very docile but I just don't know where she should be at this point. We also have a separate coop with our mille's (2 roos and 2 hens) but I don't know if they would accept her. We also have the baby coop with 10 silkies and 10 frizzles, but they are all less than two months old and bantams.

Any advise would be appreciated. At this point she can't be with the other hens for fear they will just kill her, and she can't be with the goats for fear she will harm one of the babies and goat-mama will stomp her.

 

[Andora]

Can you take one of the older sex links out and put it with her, just the two of them somewhere? Like maybe let them range around outside of the pens. One on one, she hopefully wouldn't get beat up. Maybe wait a few days until her wounds are healed and everything.

I've discovered when you give a bird a friend, after awhile those two stick together. Then when you put them back with the entire flock, the lesser ranked bird stops getting beat up because her best friend is in with the cool kids.