Recovering and MAY become a House Hen

[mrshoneyc]

My #1 lead lady was attacked by our new cockrel for a second time. After the first time I brought her in the house in a crate to recover: I think he attacked her bc she was sickly for a couple of days with sneezing and then wheezing. In hindsight I should have brought her in when I first noticed. Anyway, after 4 days of being in our house (she'd spend time walking around the kitchen with my 6 cats I reintroduced her late last night. Today I found her bloodied and huddled in the freezing grass in a corner of the yard. I was heartbroken. I brought her back into the house, put her in the crate and in a bathroom with a space heater until she warmed up.



The blood was dripping off her so bad and it looked much worse than it actually ended up being. I bathed her and then used the blow dryer on her and put pet balm on all the boo-boos. She had her peanut butter oatmeal with blueberries and is sleeping peacefully in the crate in a spare room.
Anyways I noticed after the second day last week she wasn't pooping in the crate, and was wondering if hens can be housebroken? When I bring the crate into the kitchen and open the crate door she steps a few steps out then does her business (thank goodness it's linoleum, not carpet!) She eats and drinks some camomile tea (a friend said I should give her 25% camomile in her drinking water for her immune system - okay! LOL) walks around for an hour or so, does do a few poops, then I crate her back up. Ideally she'd be up with the rest of the flock, but I am back to nursing her back to 100%. I'm afraid that the next time she's up with the rest, the little roo will do it again or worse, and am anticipating making her a House Hen.
Is it do-able? Again, I do have 6 cats who have free range of the house and yards.

Sharing cream cheese

TY in advance!

 

[LRH97]

I've heard of people having a chicken or two in the house. I think that it should be fine if the cats don't show any interest in her, like mine do. By the looks of the picture it seems that they don't look too bloodthirsty. Just keep a close eye on them and see how it goes. As far as house breaking, I don't think you can "train" a hen to go in a certain place. They poop about every fifteen or so minutes, probably without even thinking about it. You can however, buy chicken diapers that go around the wings and cover the bottom to catch her little presents. If you do decide to have her inside, also make sure there is a nice quiet, dark spot for her to lay her eggs in. Supervised outside time is good too. That little roo sounds like a pain!

 

[Mr MKK FARMS]

The picture with the cats is so awesome!

 

[mrshoneyc]

Well, my daughter is moving up in a week or 2 and she's bringing her little ankle nippers - 2 small dogs. I don't know how they're going to act with the cats, much less the chicken!

 

[scratch'n'peck]

I hope your hen heals quickly. I would be more concerned about the dogs with the hen than the cats. Unless they are really tiny dogs- like smaller than the cats- then they could be a risk. Although some dogs do okay with chickens, they can be unpredictable. Unfortunately, there are so many posts about chickens killed by the family dogs on the forum.

It sounds like a tough situation. I might be more inclined to try and separate the cockerel from the hens. Maybe you could give him a crate inside the coop.