She no longer roosts with the others in the coop

[swa45511]

I need some advice. We have 5 girls, about 5.5 months old. Elevated coop with an attached closed run, allowed to free range during the day then I close up the run up at night once it's dark. It appears at least 2 of them have been alienating the Welsummer because my husband has seen them sort of pecking in her direction; they haven't hurt her, but it's pretty clear they are trying to keep her away from the 4 of them. Now she's taken to perching on the top of the run right next to the coop instead of going in to roost when it gets dark, and I've had to physically pull her off and put her in the run when I go out to close up after dark. I'm pretty sure she eventually goes up to roost with the others but I can't swear to it because I don't get up quite early enough to see this. During the day she tends to hang by herself, apart from the others. It didn't used to be this way. Up until about 2 weeks ago they all hung out together and did their little fun chicken things. I'm getting tired of physically putting her away at night, especially because she's always almost just out of reach so I have to use a flat board to push her towards me and I don't want to hurt her or cause any further psychological issues because it appears the others have bullied her and I don't think my manhandling her will help.
I sure would appreciate any suggestions for how to remedy this situation! Thanks in advance!

 

[sourland]

Is it possible to add another roost in your coop ?

 

[Mrs. K]

What are the measurements of your coop? This often happens at this age. I think your flock is telling you that there is not enough room in there. People often think that if they are raised together, that can over come not enough room, that they will tolerate crowding. Being raised together has little influence on the behavior of chickens.

Why it happens at this stage of the game, is that what was more than enough space for them when they were little, gradually becomes NOT enough space for adult birds. Free ranging during the day will do nothing for not enough space in the coop. And if you are in the northern hemisphere, the days are going to be getting shorter, hence MORE time in the coop. In the dead of winter, mine are roosting by 4:00 and staying there until 7:30.

I am betting that the coop is too small. So either reduce your flock, that is what your hens are trying to do. I think if you pull her out, you will see a drop in tension in the flock. That you were not even aware of, it happened to me once, a predator got in and helped me out, but within days, I noticed that the flock was calmer. You can have too many birds.

Mrs K

 

[swa45511]

Is it possible to add another roost in your coop ?

The coop is fairly small, enough to give 5 birds 3 square feet apiece. It already has 2 roosts, a lower and upper but nobody sits on the lower anymore.

 

[Cassondra53]

This was happening to me with a Wellsummer, too. In my flock, she's definitely the most submissive and shy, hangs out by herself a lot. She's also the oldest (not laying eggs anymore, I adopted her from a neighbor), so not sure if that contributed to her being an independent lady.
Mine was sleeping in the nest boxes (even though they're below the roosts). I was physically moving her up to to the roost every night, and now she's just doing it on her own. Maybe she learned that if she doesn't get up there, the human is going to come pick her up and she was getting tired of me? I also have two roosts and now everything seems to be settled. My two roosts are at the same height, so that's helpful I think. I was worried that because she's an older lady she wasn't able to fly up to the roost, but she's proven me wrong about that as of this week.
Good luck! It's always a sad thing when one chicken gets the cold shoulder from the rest. I'm always wishing I could talk some sense into them, like "heyyyy, ladies, can't we all just get along?"

 

[swa45511]

What are the measurements of your coop? This often happens at this age. I think your flock is telling you that there is not enough room in there. People often think that if they are raised together, that can over come not enough room, that they will tolerate crowding. Being raised together has little influence on the behavior of chickens.

Why it happens at this stage of the game, is that what was more than enough space for them when they were little, gradually becomes NOT enough space for adult birds. Free ranging during the day will do nothing for not enough space in the coop. And if you are in the northern hemisphere, the days are going to be getting shorter, hence MORE time in the coop. In the dead of winter, mine are roosting by 4:00 and staying there until 7:30.

I am betting that the coop is too small. So either reduce your flock, that is what your hens are trying to do. I think if you pull her out, you will see a drop in tension in the flock. That you were not even aware of, it happened to me once, a predator got in and helped me out, but within days, I noticed that the flock was calmer. You can have too many birds.

Mrs K

What are the measurements of your coop? This often happens at this age. I think your flock is telling you that there is not enough room in there. People often think that if they are raised together, that can over come not enough room, that they will tolerate crowding. Being raised together has little influence on the behavior of chickens.

Why it happens at this stage of the game, is that what was more than enough space for them when they were little, gradually becomes NOT enough space for adult birds. Free ranging during the day will do nothing for not enough space in the coop. And if you are in the northern hemisphere, the days are going to be getting shorter, hence MORE time in the coop. In the dead of winter, mine are roosting by 4:00 and staying there until 7:30.

I am betting that the coop is too small. So either reduce your flock, that is what your hens are trying to do. I think if you pull her out, you will see a drop in tension in the flock. That you were not even aware of, it happened to me once, a predator got in and helped me out, but within days, I noticed that the flock was calmer. You can have too many birds.

Mrs K

The coop is 4'x4' with an upper and lower roost roughly 4' long each. I never shut the door that leads to the run, since the run is enclosed with hardwire cloth. The welsummer used to (at least appeared to) be the leader of the pack, and she was the largest of the chicks, but now the Isa has gotten a little bigger than the welsummer. Also we live in Florida, and currently it gets dark around 7:15p. In the dead of winter it will be around 6:00p.

 

[Mrs. K]

4x4 is considered the minimum for 4 birds, and your flock agrees. In Florida - perhaps the climate is good enough that she does not need to be in a coop at night. I think I would let her go. You really don't have enough space for her.

Mrs K

 

[aart]

The coop is 4'x4' with an upper and lower roost roughly 4' long each. I never shut the door that leads to the run, since the run is enclosed with hardwire cloth.

Please post pics of coop and run, inside and out...might come up with a solution.

 

[LaFleche]

The coop is fairly small, enough to give 5 birds 3 square feet apiece. It already has 2 roosts, a lower and upper but nobody sits on the lower anymore.

Apart from this being quite crowded I would suggest you lift the lower roost to the exact level of the higher one.
And I would separate the aggressor/instigator for some days to give the Welsummer a chance to reintegrate.