Please help! Quarantined chicken needs to go back to her flock, but a couple of them were pecking at her.

[Klinsley]

My entire flock has been together since baby chickies. A couple weeks ago one of them dislocated her wing and had to be kept in a cage separated from the others. Today I put the cage (with her in it) back in the coop. One of the bigger pullets started packing at her like crazy through the cage. When I opened to add feed to her bowl she stuck her head out and the bigger one pecked her and pulled her feathers. I assumed they would need time to get used to each other again, but I didn't think about it being that bad. Will this get better?? How long should she be kept in the cage in the coop??

 

[LilyS]

My entire flock has been together since baby chickies. A couple weeks ago one of them dislocated her wing and had to be kept in a cage separated from the others. Today I put the cage (with her in it) back in the coop. One of the bigger pullets started packing at her like crazy through the cage. When I opened to add feed to her bowl she stuck her head out and the bigger one pecked her and pulled her feathers. I assumed they would need time to get used to each other again, but I didn't think about it being that bad. Will this get better?? How long should she be kept in the cage in the coop??

While I don't have years of experience i do know that with my chickens I have four different age groups I'm slowly integrating together. What is working for me is when I bring out the first group that are in their coop I get the babies in the brooder and I sit outside with all of them together. I would do this for an hour one day and try to extend the time they were mixed each day until the littles where more or less old enough to be outside most of the day. They still go into a separate brooder at night and i still notice the bigger ones sometimes peck at them but honestly it seems mostly the big ones establishing their pecking order amoungst themselves and the tweens have started to establish ones in their age group. No one has been killed and they all seem happy. I hope this helps.

 

[rosemarythyme]

Was she kept in the coop the entire time while recovering, or did you remove her for an extended period of time?

 

[Klinsley]

Was she kept in the coop the entire time while recovering, or did you remove her for an extended period of time?

She wasn't kept in the coop. I removed her for the majority of her recovery

 

[rosemarythyme]

So she'll need to be reintegrated as a new bird. They no longer accept her as part of the flock. I'd keep her safely confined but in line of sight of the others for at least a week, maybe two, depending on how they react to her, then you can try letting her out with some supervision.

Since I don't know what your set up looks like, you'll want ample space and clutter to give her a chance to hide if the others go after her. Also multiple food and water sources, spread out with clutter in between, to reduce food aggression.

In the future, if you want to make it easier on yourself, it's a good idea to have an isolation unit inside the coop or run so any birds that need treatment stay in sight of the flock. I had a bird in an isolation unit for 6 weeks and adding her back to the flock was as simple as opening the door.

 

[Klinsley]

So she'll need to be reintegrated as a new bird. They no longer accept her as part of the flock. I'd keep her safely confined but in line of sight of the others for at least a week, maybe two, depending on how they react to her, then you can try letting her out with some supervision.

Since I don't know what your set up looks like, you'll want ample space and clutter to give her a chance to hide if the others go after her. Also multiple food and water sources, spread out with clutter in between, to reduce food aggression.

In the future, if you want to make it easier on yourself, it's a good idea to have an isolation unit inside the coop or run so any birds that need treatment stay in sight of the flock. I had a bird in an isolation unit for 6 weeks and adding her back to the flock was as simple as opening the door.

Thank you so much for the help.