Reintroducing Previously Injured Hen

[Chickem]

Thanks for all the information, everybody. Like I said, this fall, I'm planning on making the existing run larger and increasing coop size to accommodate more chickens. Will building this expansion and then reintroducing all the birds (the RIRs, Orpingtons, and Millet) at once be likely to solve the aggression issue?

And about the re-integration through separation idea, the funny thing is that I let Millet roam out of her pen during the day, and she still always seems to be hanging around the pen with the other girls. When this is happening, I never see any aggression, only when she is in the pen with them is there any fighting happening.

 

[mmhdlh]

We've only had our hurt girlm, Cheeks, out of the coop and run for 4 nights due to injured leg. She has much improved so we put her back in this evening. 10 minutes later the rest of the 4 girls were beating her up pretty bad so we immediately got her out and she's safely back in the house. Any advice on how to reintegrate her? Again, it's only been 4 nights.

 

[theuglyduckling]

since this question is similar to the original poster i decided to just post the question on here...hope that okay.

i have a 9 week old BO pullet that was attacked by a rat who has healed up but the problem is that im not sure how i would reintroduce her to the others. there are 31 other BO's who are the same age. can i just put her in with the others right now or would they just attack her?

 

[aart]

Age doesn't matter, they can start being territorial at just a week or two.

How long was the injured separated?
Was she separated within sight of the flock or out of sight?
That can make a huge difference.
Out of sight will make a stranger of the injured,
while being just separated by wire much less so.

You might be able to just put her back in....or that might not work so well.
With a such a large flock, and hopefully lots of space, it might work just fine.
You could try it and see, but be ready to intervene if she gets beaten too badly.
Places for her to hide would help a great deal.

You might need to put one of the flock in with the recovered bird,
if they get along, put in another one or two,
get a good half dozen to form a group then add them all back into the flock.
Do this over a couple few days....Chicken Juggling!

This might help:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/introducing-a-single-hen-to-an-existing-flock.71997/

So might this.
Integration Basics:
It's all about territory and resources(space/food/water).
Existing birds will almost always attack new ones to defend their resources.
Understanding chicken behaviors is essential to integrating new birds into your flock.

Confine new birds within sight but physically segregated from older/existing birds for several weeks, so they can see and get used to each other but not physically interact.

In adjacent runs, spread scratch grains along the dividing mesh, best if mesh is just big enough for birds to stick their head thru, so they get used to eating together.

The more space, the better. Birds will peck to establish dominance, the pecked bird needs space to get away. As long as there's no copious blood drawn and/or new bird is not trapped/pinned down and beaten unmercilessly, let them work it out. Every time you interfere or remove new birds, they'll have to start the pecking order thing all over again.

Multiple feed/water stations. Dominance issues are most often carried out over sustenance, more stations lessens the frequency of that issue.

Places for the new birds to hide 'out of line of sight'(but not a dead end trap) and/or up and away from any bully birds. Roosts, pallets or boards leaned up against walls or up on concrete blocks, old chairs tables, branches, logs, stumps out in the run can really help. Lots of diversion and places to 'hide' instead of bare wide open run.

This used to be a better search, new format has reduced it's efficacy, but still:
Read up on integration..... BYC advanced search>titles only>integration
This is good place to start reading, BUT some info is outdated IMO:
http://www.backyardchickens.com/a/adding-to-your-flock

**Edited by Staff**