Solitary confinement for problem hen

[kristi83]

My problem girl is in a divided "jail" area inside the main cage. It's been a week now and she still races back and forth along the wire when the new girl is nearby. Is it defeating the purpose that she is not being jailed out of sight?

I have always jailed them out of site for a bit , but not long enough to let them forget about her . A bully inside the coop is awful . I re homed 3 of my chickens 2 New Hampshire Reds and 1 Rhode Island red bc they Were horrible , no matter what you do sometimes it doesn't work. They bullied one of my barred rocks so bad her leg is still messed up to this day . Take her out of site for a week or little less then try to re introduce that may do the trick and switch up the pecking order . Good luck !!!

 

[Ridgerunner]

I've had success isolating a bully, anything from chicks two weeks old that hatched together to older birds. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, but is certainly worth trying.

Chickens often do not like change. Change can interfere with a hen laying, sometimes just for a day or sometimes for weeks. It's possible locking her up did cause her to skip laying. She may lay today, she may not lay for a few more days. You'll just have to wait and see.

I don't know how old those pullets are. If they are not yet laying her attitude may change once they start. From your other thread it sounds like probably not yet laying. But I agree with Mrs K, solve for the peace of the flock.

 

[Eggs82]

Is this bully low bird in the pecking order?

The bully is the lowest of the older hens as far as pecking order goes.

How much space do you have in coop/run/range?
Dd you add more coop and run space?

I was able to free up some room in the coop by removing the nest boxes, then building an exterior nest box with a lid. “Which is awesome btw”. My run is 10x20. But most of the time they free range over 3 acres.

 

[Eggs82]

just An update: things are going a lot better since separating the bully from the rest. Last night I closed off the pullets temporary coop, forcing them to go into the regular coop. Which all but one did willingly. A couple pullets even roosted beside the older hens. I’ll give Sophia a week and let her back out. If she can’t behave I’ll have to get rid of her. Not worth stressing all The pullets over one hen. My cockerel is a lot happier too. Nobody to knock him off the hens when he’s doing his thing.

 

[GrannyHeeney]

The bully is the lowest of the older hens as far as pecking order goes.

Mine is the top girl, isn't the range of personalities crazy? Lunatic Leroy had everyone beaten up and Scrambled was the only one who'd fight back--she was the only one with all her feathers intact. Now that mean old Leroy is gone, Scrambled is doing nearly all the same stuff, and poor Dumpling has lost all the feathers on her back again just as they'd been growing back in. Dumpling and Mollie, by the way, are generally keeping their distance from each other but are basically fine after a week. Dumpling was laying yesterday and Mollie was standing a foot away from the box singing the egg song. :-o So it's all about mean old Scrambled now.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

I fail to see the rhyme and reason behind some folks attempts to integrate new or strange hens into a flock. These same people obviously don't expect strange roosters to coexist, so why in the age of feminism when all sexes are equal do they expect a duke's mixture of hens, all with varying degrees of moxie, to coexist or sing Kum-ba-ya even if it is out of key is beyond me.

I agree that chickens are flock animals and when other chickens are present they will join together into a flock of chickens. However if chickens are flock animals and they hate being alone then it is cruel to isolate, or single out a hen or to administer corporal punishment to her simply because she finds it impossible to live or co-exist with one or more of her sister hens.

 

[GrannyHeeney]

I had gone from 7 chickens down to 2. Possum, skunk, millipede and monsoon rain for a month did it.

 

[GrannyHeeney]

I could also add, we as humans don't allow other humans to randomly beat the crap out of others, so if we can prevent cruel behavior in a group of animals under our care, we will do so. Mollie was crammed literally into the ground in the dirt, with only her tail feathers out, for an hour before I could find her. I thought she was dead before I dug her out. Scrambled isn't going anywhere but it is up to me to teach her how she's going to behave; after all, she's only about a year and 8 mos old: still a youngin'.