Silver Laced Wyanadott getting beat up

[RichnSteph]

Update on Lacy. She's been a pet since we put her in the bin inside the house. She eats from our hands and has started to put some little pin feathers back on. Her skin looks much better and she's waking up every morning to feed till her crop is full and goes to bed each night to available feed until she is full. In the morning she wakes when I do and raises her head to say good morning, I can even pet her and pick her up to say hello. Heck our 16 month old daughter pets her often and the hen doesn't freak out. I built her her own run semi out of sight of the others in the hope that she'd be able to walk around and do the chicken thing. No such luck. She hides in her box all day refusing to eat or drink. Today we put Elsa (the #2 in the pecking order) black Australorp who is an amazingly sweet broody hen in with Lacy and within minutes of Lacy coming out Elsa jumped her and had her running back into her box. *sigh*

Our plan is still to keep her in the house until she's made weight and has full feathers. Tomorrow I plan to take her outside with me as I do yard work and see if she'll at least follow me around to do some scratching and pecking. So far her terrible limp is all but gone and her appetite is through the roof. She's eating 6-8 ounces of BSF larvae in the morning and night and cleaning the bowl of grapes, layer pellets and BOSS.

RichnSteph.

 

[RichnSteph]

Update again. Lacy no longer limps and is a great friend and pet. Her back is almost covered and her head is looking much better. She is one of the family now and wakes up when we do for her morning feeding and time outside. The rooster still makes noise when he sees her but the other hens ignore her and have stopped rushing the fence to get to her. It looks like she'll make weight and be fully feathered by spring when we can let her back into the flock. Our hope is that she'll set herself into the pecking order once again and this time not at the bottom. She is such a pleasant hen to hold and talk to.
RichnSteph