Long story.... we have a little Arucuana who was bullied by the existing flock. We removed her, she recovered, tried re-introducing and each time, she ended up being beaten up.
So we decided to build a second coop and get her some company. We got three rescue battery hens. Initially they were in a small cage together whilst we finished off the new one (2 days) and seemed OK. One was particularly dominant, so we separated her.
Then we put them in the big new run. Chaos!
Our original hen (Nella) was attacked ferociously by the dominant one to the extent that blood was drawn and she was very disorientated. So the dominant one (Scarlett) was put into an isolation cage (a small self contained run & coop). This left 3 hens, of which Nella actually established herself as head hen.
Our big problem now is that one of the new hens is incredibly timid. She is getting on OK (just normal "it's mine" peck from Nella) but is terrified of the other new hen (Rosie) who is picking on her mercilessly. I have to intervene and most times the timid one just hides upstairs in the nesting area until Rosie comes up. She is continuously shaking. She runs over to me for protection and at the moment I am having to feed her wet mash to ensure she is eating and getting moisture. She won't venture down to get food or drink unless turfed out by Rosie. Then Rosie follows her downstairs and she runs back up to hide.
We have multiple feeders in the run but she is so timid, even the wind makes her jump and run.
Is there anything we can do to make her calmer and settle? It is pitiful watching it and I am not prepared to allow her to live a miserable existence. She will calm down in my arms and is a lovely little thing but it's the other chicken she has a problem with. Goodness only knows what it will be like when I try to reintroduce Scarlett back in in another week's time. If only she wouldn't run, they would probably peck her and then ignore - but the running all the time is making her an attractive moving target.
So we decided to build a second coop and get her some company. We got three rescue battery hens. Initially they were in a small cage together whilst we finished off the new one (2 days) and seemed OK. One was particularly dominant, so we separated her.
Then we put them in the big new run. Chaos!
Our original hen (Nella) was attacked ferociously by the dominant one to the extent that blood was drawn and she was very disorientated. So the dominant one (Scarlett) was put into an isolation cage (a small self contained run & coop). This left 3 hens, of which Nella actually established herself as head hen.
Our big problem now is that one of the new hens is incredibly timid. She is getting on OK (just normal "it's mine" peck from Nella) but is terrified of the other new hen (Rosie) who is picking on her mercilessly. I have to intervene and most times the timid one just hides upstairs in the nesting area until Rosie comes up. She is continuously shaking. She runs over to me for protection and at the moment I am having to feed her wet mash to ensure she is eating and getting moisture. She won't venture down to get food or drink unless turfed out by Rosie. Then Rosie follows her downstairs and she runs back up to hide.
We have multiple feeders in the run but she is so timid, even the wind makes her jump and run.
Is there anything we can do to make her calmer and settle? It is pitiful watching it and I am not prepared to allow her to live a miserable existence. She will calm down in my arms and is a lovely little thing but it's the other chicken she has a problem with. Goodness only knows what it will be like when I try to reintroduce Scarlett back in in another week's time. If only she wouldn't run, they would probably peck her and then ignore - but the running all the time is making her an attractive moving target.
