Orpington kicked to the curb....WHY????

[lemonpeep]

I have one adult rooster and two adult hens. There is a conspiracy brewing, again! These chickens have lived together for almost a year with little or no trouble. Our orpington went through the rejection once before when she tried to sit on an egg. Now, for reasons unknown to me, the other two gangsters have rejected her to the point that she doesn't even come out of the house. This morning she stayed on her seperate perch. I am very concerned as it appears she may not be eating much. Every time the others come around she puffs herself out and goes in to the defense mode. Yesterday, there was some blood in the hen house but I can not detect where it is coming from. HELP! HELP! What can I do to correct this problem? Is my hen sick and they are rejecting her or is it just downright bad behavior? Thanks for some answers!

 

[tiffanyh]

I dont have advice per se, but I know my friend ended up giving me her orpington for that exact reason...so it does happen.

Hopefully someone else can give you advice. I mean, you can remove the other hen and let this one "rebond" with the roo. But if you change the dominance chain, they will just have to work it out again when you reintroduce them.

 

[Tmec]

I am new to chicken raising so I'm no expert but this is what I have observed:

We have 12 chickens that were purchased at 4 different groups. They were raised together for about the first 2 weeks and then added to the older groups. I have been amazed at how each group stays together. They free range together,they roost together, they eat together. It seems that they bonded together very young and they retain that in adulthood. They tolerate the other groups but do not have the relationship they have with their core group. Also, I noticed when each group was added they went through the initiation from the former groups in the order of seniority. So you may try to get more chickens they may let her into the group but I doubt it. She may just need to go on the table.