Hi! So I have 4 beautiful hens, but recently, my white leghorn was limping,so we took her in our house and let her recover. It has been 3 days since she had last seen her sisters. Well, today we let her back into the coop, but our very large hen, Brownie, pecked at her. I brushed it off, and then I let all of them into the garden to peck at some worms. All was fine, they were all happy. I thought that it was all fine, so I let all of them back into their coop, and left them there for an hour. When I went back out to feed them, I find my white leghorn laying on the ground, trying to take a dustbath. But, when i looked closer, the side of her head was all bloody! I thought that it was Brownie, and I took my white leghorn back inside to wash her. Right now, she's with me back inside the house, but I'm really worried about how to introduce her back to her group. Any suggestions?
Sorry, I'm very new to this chicken thing and just wanted to wish you luck re-introducing her. I'm currently trying to introduce a new hen into my existing 3 and have received some lovely advice from the more experienced forum members. Currently I have her separated but still in view of the other hens (separated by chicken wire in the same coop) which seems to be the gold standard advice but might be different for a re-introduction situation.
It is always best if you have to separate a chicken to keep it within sight of the others, a permanent or temporary separation pen is always something that's needed. I think when you returned your hen to the others she went through the typical hazing and reaffirming of the pecking order, and if a hen isn't quite up to par she can get beat up a bit. Some time in a pen where she can be seen but not touched can help some of the behaviors be expressed vocally but not physically, and can help reintroduction. After a couple of days most chickens will forget that the hen was missing and will mostly leave her alone, I will throw out scratch or treats while letting birds out to help distract everyone as well.
