Stressed hen :(

[Kawkawkaye]

hello again everyone!


Bare with me, our chickens’ roosting arrangements are quite complicated.


Recently the hen in question become very aggressive to our other animals, including our young chicken batch and even our cats! She is getting so aggressive with one cat that I actually fear for the CAT’s wellbeing She’s completely unrelentless– not just little pecking-order-pecks but I’m-trying-to-kill-you pecks. She chases the cat like, well, a dog.



This has all developed this week. Before then, she got along *fairly* well with our other chooks and animals. As in, they tolerated each other. She used to be in the middle of the pecking order but all the chooks that were below her have now passed.


When her last sister died (3 months ago) she became very anxious all the time - always clucking/yelling (there’s really no other word for it) and persistantly hanging around us, which, fair enough, she was lonely. It’s worth mentioning that at that same time her nesting arrangements changed dramatically– we used to leave the pen door open and let them free-range our yard during the day, lock them in at night. However our new chickens are (long-story-short) special needs and need to stay in the pen 24/7, therefore our other hens now only sleep in the pen and don’t get access during the day. Although she has several safe places, I imagine having restricted access to her pen is a factor. ALSO worth mentioning that two weeks ago she got rough-handled by a friend’s dog who evidently didn’t know how to play with chooks. She wasn’t injured, but I imagine it was still traumatic.

So, a lot of understandable factors into her losing her temper. I’ve been giving her a lot of extra attention and little treats, but is there anything else I can do to comfort her and make her less stressed??

*edit: note that she has grown up with the cats mentioned, they’ve never batted an eyelash at each other before now.

 

[featheredplanets]

So exactly what are your flock dynamics? You have this hen who is stressed. How old is she? How many other chickens do you have, what’s their age? Why are they special needs? And they all live in a coop and run together? How big is your coop and run?

 

[----------]

right now your chicken not only stressed its depressed and missing her sister shes trying to get love from you and trying to defend herself . does she have a chicken friend left ? is she alone? poor baby give her lots of attention.

 

[Kawkawkaye]

So exactly what are your flock dynamics? You have this hen who is stressed. How old is she? How many other chickens do you have, what’s their age? Why are they special needs? And they all live in a coop and run together? How big is your coop and run?

She’s very old, hasn’t laid for a while. We have one other chicken, roughly same age, who is free range like her, from a different background, but they hang around each other for company. I know two chickens is probably not ideal socially (obviously it was more before and they’re all dying of old age at the same time)– we’ve tried to introduce them to the others several times but this girl is just way too aggressive! (We’ve kept chickens for as long as I can remember and so of course have gone through the process of introducing them several times, but honestly this girl is just so aggressive towards them!)


The isolated chickens (4) are a few months old, one is blind. We live on 5acres and their pen is 20x30metres (?rough estimate; it’s the size of our house so quite big), there are three smaller coops within that that they have the option to sleep in, although our old girls both prefer to sit in the trees). So the old girls get free reign of the pen at night and wander around 5acres during the day, the young girls are in the pen 24/7, but we let them out when we’re outside and can supervise them. Hope that covers everything

 

[Kawkawkaye]

right now your chicken not only stressed its depressed and missing her sister shes trying to get love from you and trying to defend herself . does she have a chicken friend left ? is she alone? poor baby give her lots of attention.

I know I feel so bad for her honestly . She does have a chook friend though, who seems emotionally indestructable. They’re complete opposites.

 

[featherhead007]

right now your chicken not only stressed its depressed and missing her sister shes trying to get love from you and trying to defend herself . does she have a chicken friend left ? is she alone? poor baby give her lots of attention.

you are so right!

 

[featheredplanets]

She’s very old, hasn’t laid for a while. We have one other chicken, roughly same age, who is free range like her, from a different background, but they hang around each other for company. I know two chickens is probably not ideal socially (obviously it was more before and they’re all dying of old age at the same time)– we’ve tried to introduce them to the others several times but this girl is just way too aggressive! (We’ve kept chickens for as long as I can remember and so of course have gone through the process of introducing them several times, but honestly this girl is just so aggressive towards them!)


The isolated chickens (4) are a few months old, one is blind. We live on 5acres and their pen is 20x30metres (?rough estimate; it’s the size of our house so quite big), there are three smaller coops within that that they have the option to sleep in, although our old girls both prefer to sit in the trees). So the old girls get free reign of the pen at night and wander around 5acres during the day, the young girls are in the pen 24/7, but we let them out when we’re outside and can supervise them. Hope that covers everything

I can’t see any obvious problems that are easily solvable. I think it’s likely a mixture of being older, the new girls and losing a flock mate. The dog attack will have set back her confidence too. I would carry on giving her special treatment but I don’t think there’s really much you can do. Just try and keep her happy

 

[aart]

Did she attack the cat before or after the dog incident?
The confinement may be the biggest issue.
How big is the coop and run, in feet by feet?
Dimensions and pics might really help here.