OlympicHomesteader
In the Brooder
Long setup, short question:
We have 13 hens (cuckoo marans cinnamon queens, and an Icelandic) and 2 roosters (cuckoo marans), free ranging over about 1/4 acre. We raised the first six from chicks we bought, and then one of our cuckoos raised a large brood last year. When the young males matured and started getting rowdy, we re-homed two roosters, then culled three more for the freezer.
Everyone gets along, everyone seems adapted well, and they seem to have a pretty nice life. However, one hen just insists on breaking out of the pen. Even after we clipped her wings, she would work the fence perimeter until she found a spot she could jump or climb. She wouldn’t go far - just into the vegetable garden to raise hell, or into the adjacent pasture that we’re replanting after three years of letting the birds work it. Every day, multiple times, no matter what we did to deter her, she’d find a way.
The fence is five feet welded wire, with an extra string line across the top to prevent having a place to land. Their yard includes a good section of woods, shrubs, grass, etc. This hen just insists in being on the other side of the fence. I ran a short section within the pen, just to see what she’d do- she jumped it back and fort. I assume this was just for my benefit, since chickens don’t have middle fingers.
Even though she’s not at the bottom of the order, the other hens have started pecking on her. It seems more of a reaction to her jail breaking rather than a cause.
My wife was fed up and ready to cull the bird. Instead, she agreed to make a smaller pen in the middle of the big yard, complete with its own small coop and a rain/sun cover, and put this hen into solitary confinement. The flock exists around her, we spread food at the dividing fence to maintain some interaction, but otherwise she’s now in solitary. My wife hopes she’ll go broody and raise a clutch in there.
MY QUESTIONS: will isolating this hen cause her trauma or undue mental stress? Is it a good/bad idea to have her in view of the main flock? Is something that we should try temporarily, or would a start/stop/start just be more stressful?
I’m a total softie for our animals. I’ll cull them when it’s time, but I can’t abide letting them suffer if I can avoid it.
We have 13 hens (cuckoo marans cinnamon queens, and an Icelandic) and 2 roosters (cuckoo marans), free ranging over about 1/4 acre. We raised the first six from chicks we bought, and then one of our cuckoos raised a large brood last year. When the young males matured and started getting rowdy, we re-homed two roosters, then culled three more for the freezer.
Everyone gets along, everyone seems adapted well, and they seem to have a pretty nice life. However, one hen just insists on breaking out of the pen. Even after we clipped her wings, she would work the fence perimeter until she found a spot she could jump or climb. She wouldn’t go far - just into the vegetable garden to raise hell, or into the adjacent pasture that we’re replanting after three years of letting the birds work it. Every day, multiple times, no matter what we did to deter her, she’d find a way.
The fence is five feet welded wire, with an extra string line across the top to prevent having a place to land. Their yard includes a good section of woods, shrubs, grass, etc. This hen just insists in being on the other side of the fence. I ran a short section within the pen, just to see what she’d do- she jumped it back and fort. I assume this was just for my benefit, since chickens don’t have middle fingers.
Even though she’s not at the bottom of the order, the other hens have started pecking on her. It seems more of a reaction to her jail breaking rather than a cause.
My wife was fed up and ready to cull the bird. Instead, she agreed to make a smaller pen in the middle of the big yard, complete with its own small coop and a rain/sun cover, and put this hen into solitary confinement. The flock exists around her, we spread food at the dividing fence to maintain some interaction, but otherwise she’s now in solitary. My wife hopes she’ll go broody and raise a clutch in there.
MY QUESTIONS: will isolating this hen cause her trauma or undue mental stress? Is it a good/bad idea to have her in view of the main flock? Is something that we should try temporarily, or would a start/stop/start just be more stressful?
I’m a total softie for our animals. I’ll cull them when it’s time, but I can’t abide letting them suffer if I can avoid it.
