Reintroducing a chicken (it's complicated)

blue fire

Crowing
14 Years
May 2, 2007
896
9
254
Murfreesboro, TN
Hello fellow chicken people, I would love if I could get a little input and suggestions on my situation and it is a little long-winded, so my apologies for that. I purchased some chicks from a co-op about 2 years ago and little did I know that this particular co-op had chicks from a crappy hatchery considering almost all 6 of the chicks ended up having genetic related problems.
The amberlink hen I got had developed cataracts after couple of months. Needless to say she has difficulty seeing so I named her Bee, after a bumblebee since they sometimes bump into things. Bee is of course on the bottom of the pecking order and I feel like it's extra hard on her because she can't see the hens so she doesn't know to look away from a staredown and gets pecked at for it very often.
About a month ago I saw a hawk take down one of our 7 hens. I guess it hit her really hard because she laid there with her eyes closed twitching and passed away before I could think of a way to dispatch her. Everyone was shaken and I kept them in them locked away for a couple days, hoping the hawk would move on. The reason it was a couple days was because the coop was one I bought from tractor supply with a tiny run(don't believe the descriptions on these coops, they recommend waaay more chickens than what should actually live in there).
The hawk came back a week later and the girls hid in a bush except for Bee, who the hawk seemed to be eyeing. She was on the other side of the yard hidden behind pallets. I came out and the hawk flew away, but Bee was so scared she was grunting and breathing fast.
I decided that that weekend I was going to get a large dog run to attach to the coop so I can keep the girls up and protected from the hawk. I had noticed one morning that Bee did not want to come out of the coop so I took a closer look and noticed one of her eyes was swollen and she did not even want to eat scratch.
I brought her inside the house and put her in a large rabbit cage.
It seemed like her breathing was labored there was a clicking on the inhale and she did not want to drink at all. It sounded like a respiratory disease and she didn't look too great but I was going to try the best with what I had and prepared for the worst. I was able to get her to eat scrambled eggs and drip water on her beak the first 3 days.
After that she perked up and started eating scratch and drinking water on her own. Breathing was normal again and 2 days after putting medicine in her eye, she has both eyes open now.
 
I took her outside for a bit to see if she wanted to scratch around, but I think she was away long enough for the other hens to want to reestablish pecking order.
The 2 top hens jumped on her and started pecking at her head, so I picked her up and put her back inside for now as it is also in the 30s and she was shivering.
Ultimately my question is, how do I reintroduce this hen back into the flock and into the cold weather? Since her vision is so bad, I don't know if she can or remembers how to navigate the coop and yard, especially with this new run. These other hens are so mean to her since she is smaller(hard to find food when you can't really see and are bottom of pecking order) and she can't back off from a stare down she can't see. Finally how should I adapt her to this temperature? It's going to be cold for a while yet here in Tennessee.
I would appreciate any opinions, input, experiences or ideas.

TLDR:Blind hen got sick for a week and now I need to reintroduce her to flock and the cold weather.

Edit: sorry didn't know there's a text limit
 
A wire dog crate with food and water can be helpful to reintroduce a chicken. Take it slow, making sure that she can find her food and water. Then you can later try some supervised visits to see how she is accepted. Whenever there is a disability, they are more likely to be pecked or bullied. I don’t like to separate a hen away from the flock for more than a week, or it is very hard to prevent them from getting bullied.
 
You could put her in the coolest place in your house tonight. If it is that cold, you could use a lower wattage heat bulb near her dog crate for a day or two, but if she has only been out for a week, she may not need heat. They usually will lie down on the floor and keep their feet and bellies covered with feathers.
 

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