TheFugitivePen
Songster
This summer, we ordered four chicks and received an additional surprise cockerel. Our new pullets and cockerel are now seven months old and integrated with our existing flock of one-year-old Black Australorps.
One of our more dominant hens never warmed up to our cockerel. She adamantly refuses his attempts and, instead, mounts the lower hens and pullets herself (she's done this since she was a teenager). Recently, she started going through her first molt, and she got pretty scraggly.
We noticed that she was hiding in the nest boxes at night. I thought that this was due to her heavy molt (her right flight feathers were almost all gone), so I helped place her on her usual spot on the roost. However, my husband noticed she was back in the nest box the next day and, when he removed her, the rooster and some of the flock members chased and attacked her. She was absolutely terrified. She went from being a respected flock member to being hated. And we can't figure out what instigated this change.
We put her in isolation to give her a chance to calm down, observe her for signs of illness, and regrow some feathers in peace. She eseems very content in isolation, which is unusual. I've had to isolate her previously for an injury, and, as soon as she was conscious, she'd scream to be let out to free range and be with the flock. But this time? Not a peep. I can see no signs of illness--no eye or nose discharge, no lethargy, no bumblefoot, no pale or droopy comb (though it has several small, black scabs on it, I'm assuming from attacks), and her poop looks normal. Crop feels normal. She eats and drinks fine and scratches about happily out in the yard and eats treats out of my hand with gusto. If she's sick, I can't find any symptoms.
During the afternoons, we let her out to free range with the flock to help make re-integration a little smoother, as this has worked in the past with introducing new chicks or re-introducing a chicken who has been in isolation. However, this hen is on high alert, anxious, wired, and won't go near the other chickens. If she gets too close to the rooster or a certain hens, they chase her. I placed her in the run at bedtime just to observe (she seemed like she wanted in the run). If any other chicken entered the coop, she ran out and hid behind me. When others started roosting, she began to scream and panic. The rooster chased her out, body-slammed her, and would have attacked further if I had not intervened.
I know that chickens may turn on and attack sick flock members. Am I missing signs of an illness? What else should I be looking for?
Do chickens attack flock members going through a hard molt? But why would they attack this hen and not the others who also had a hard molt?
Or, because she mounts the other hens, does the rooster see her as a rival, and the flock has turned against her?
Is there anything I can do to help reintegrate her?
One of our more dominant hens never warmed up to our cockerel. She adamantly refuses his attempts and, instead, mounts the lower hens and pullets herself (she's done this since she was a teenager). Recently, she started going through her first molt, and she got pretty scraggly.
We noticed that she was hiding in the nest boxes at night. I thought that this was due to her heavy molt (her right flight feathers were almost all gone), so I helped place her on her usual spot on the roost. However, my husband noticed she was back in the nest box the next day and, when he removed her, the rooster and some of the flock members chased and attacked her. She was absolutely terrified. She went from being a respected flock member to being hated. And we can't figure out what instigated this change.
We put her in isolation to give her a chance to calm down, observe her for signs of illness, and regrow some feathers in peace. She eseems very content in isolation, which is unusual. I've had to isolate her previously for an injury, and, as soon as she was conscious, she'd scream to be let out to free range and be with the flock. But this time? Not a peep. I can see no signs of illness--no eye or nose discharge, no lethargy, no bumblefoot, no pale or droopy comb (though it has several small, black scabs on it, I'm assuming from attacks), and her poop looks normal. Crop feels normal. She eats and drinks fine and scratches about happily out in the yard and eats treats out of my hand with gusto. If she's sick, I can't find any symptoms.
During the afternoons, we let her out to free range with the flock to help make re-integration a little smoother, as this has worked in the past with introducing new chicks or re-introducing a chicken who has been in isolation. However, this hen is on high alert, anxious, wired, and won't go near the other chickens. If she gets too close to the rooster or a certain hens, they chase her. I placed her in the run at bedtime just to observe (she seemed like she wanted in the run). If any other chicken entered the coop, she ran out and hid behind me. When others started roosting, she began to scream and panic. The rooster chased her out, body-slammed her, and would have attacked further if I had not intervened.
I know that chickens may turn on and attack sick flock members. Am I missing signs of an illness? What else should I be looking for?
Do chickens attack flock members going through a hard molt? But why would they attack this hen and not the others who also had a hard molt?
Or, because she mounts the other hens, does the rooster see her as a rival, and the flock has turned against her?
Is there anything I can do to help reintegrate her?
