I talked about Stanley here on BYC when I first got him. He was 11 weeks old and shortly after we got him, he developed an eye infection. Long story short, per our vet, he was treated with antibiotics (two 10 day rounds) but lost his left eye.
Stanley is now 16 to 17 weeks old. Currently, we have an existing flock of six 18 week old young hens and two 2 year old hens. They are integrated with one of the older hens as alpha. I have been slowly trying to integrate Stanley into our flock. He has been seen by all hens for several days through a separate pen. He has been actually IN the run and very large fenced yard with them many days when I could keep an eye and ear out for trouble. The run and yard have many areas for escape and hiding as well as 3 stations scattered about for food and water. We have allowed them all to free range together when we are out with them. Two different times, I popped him in the coop in the night but in the morning, the girls bullied him. He sleeps now in a protected coop in our garage.
The problem is that Stanley continues to run away from all of them and they continue to pick on him. Yesterday, I heard commotion and ran up to the run to find Stanley under a low bush with his head under a board and three of the younger hens surrounding him. They were not doing any physical damage to him but essentially surrounding him so he couldn't move. I rectified the situation and separated him from the flock.
Two days ago, Stanley began to cockadoodle doo. He seems to be adjusting to his right eye monovision. When will this little dude stand up for himself? Will we have to continue this integration dance until his hormones kick in? What are your thoughts?
