reintegrating from isolation

[Amastacia]

i have a 2 month old Polish chick that got out of the chick pen in the coop and was beat up by the year old hens a while back. she has been in isolation since but is all healed up nicely and i think it is past time to put her back with the other chicks (13 others, same age as her). i'm a little worried about just putting her back in the pen with them, since she is my only Polish and i know sometimes someone who looks so different will get singled out and picked on. i don't know if the 2 weeks she has been away from them will have been long enough for them to forget that she is one of them.

any advice?

 

[Judy]

She will most likely be a stranger to them and at the bottom of the pecking order. When people have a single "bully," they often remove it for a week then return it, because it should return at the bottom of the pecking order.

 

[Amastacia]

i put her back with the rest yesterday and then stayed in the coop with them for a while (the hens were out ranging so i let the chicks have the whole coop for a while). oddly, the one doing the bullying was the Polish. she would charge at a few of the other chicks, especially the 4 white/mostly white ones. hopefully they will all calm down before anyone gets hurt