Reintroduced the broody to the flock; fighting!

[GallusGal]

I pulled my very broody hen, Grisaille, from the flock a couple of weeks ago with an egg she'd been loyally sitting on and guarding. However, the egg turned out to be a dud very sadly. She had lost a lot of weight sitting, so I fed her up for a few days then put her back, a little worried that in her weakened state, she might get picked on. I locked all the other birds up, put out fresh food and water, put her in, then released the others. The rooster did his typical strut and hassle, but ultimately has accepted her again. And she is getting along well with Tank Girl, who became the dominant bird in his absence, after a brief scuffle. However, she and Cyclone Aggie got in a pretty serious fight - they're both quite bloodied up from it, though it was mostly due to bites to the wattles and comb so the wounds are minor but heavy bleeders. Aggie has been hiding indoors since the fight and while the bleeding stopped on both of them and they're generally avoiding each other, I'm wondering how worried I should be about waking up tomorrow to cannibalized birds? Nuru and Tank don't seem too interested in pestering their injuries, but I keep hearing horror stories here about chickens going cannibalism-happy once they get a taste for blood - and Grisaille definitely got a taste!` I thought she was injured worse than she was initially because she had a fair ammount of blood on her beak, but it turned out to be Aggie's. Anything I could do to discourage picking at the wounds? Or should I just let it be and assume it was just a brief scuffle for dominance? Aggie is an extremely aggressive bird and started the fight, but before being removed Grizzy definitely ruled the roost and seems to have re-established herself despite being thinner than before.

 

[nanawendy]

I will be interested in the reply's you get. My broody hatched 4 and wants to go back in the big girls house, but they won't leave her alone. They (SLW) are brutal and she is a rather small EE. What to dooooo?????

 

[panner123]

Your hen should do fine with the others, it may take a few days to work out any problems.
nanawendy, your hen and chicks will do just fine with theothers. Even a tough old rooster has better sense than to mess with a hen with chicks.

 

[elmo]

All you can do is keep a close eye on things, and if you notice more fighting or wound pecking, remove and isolate the injured birds.

I think that wounds on combs and wattles may be less likely to attract attention since those areas are red anyway, and the scabs that form will be black. Another thing you can do is put some Blu Kote on the wounds

Broody hormones can certainly make a hen act in a way that's not usual for the pecking order. Last spring I had three broodies, and I had to keep each one in a separate pen for about a week after she'd finished raising her chicks to let those hormones go back down. I found out the hard way. Two of the hens were finished raising chicks and I tried letting them out loose in the yard to free range together. They went straight at each other to fight. I got a bad pinch and bruise on my arm separating them when one of the hens got me instead of her rival. And my hens are tiny little bantams, too!