They're all being so mean to my game chick

[NicInNC]

So I put my tiny little game chicken (the kids named her Chee-Chee, btw) out in the coop about 30 minutes ago. There is a heat lamp on in here too. She's teeny tiny despite the fact that she's 6 weeks old.

As soon as I put her in, the others came up and checked her out. She was PETRIFIED and just stood there frozen. Then one pecked at her. Then another, and then the baby EE's (that are only 4 weeks old) went after her. They were pecking at her so much that I removed her. She's so small compared to all of them and I'm afraid they'll kill her. One of them kept trying to peck at her eyeball and she was just squealing non-stop. I know they have to estalish their pecking order, but when does the pecking become too much? Her squealing reminded me of a little baby and I couldn't leave her in there.

What in the world am I going to do? I'm moving the brooder she's in into the garage tonight to get her used to a bit cooler temps (it's about 60 degrees in the garage because we have a heat vent in there). I have to get her in with the other chickens though. Any advice?

 

[cockadoodle]

Do you have a run where you can seperate them but where they could still see eachother and have some minimal interaction? If no, can you just put their brooder in the coop? Maybe a couple days of that will get them a bit nicer to Chee chee? Like the name btw... good luck

Their are probably better ideas out there but that was the first thing that came to mind.

 

[DTchickens]

how old is she?

EDIT nevermind stupid question since you stated it...

 

[cobrien]

Hi, I agree with cockadoodle - I've had the most success with keeping the new ones in a cage with as much visibility to the existing flock as possible, the trick was to do it for longer than you might think - 2 to 4 weeks, maybe even longer. After this it has helped to have more than the usual number of feeders/waterers available in different areas of the coop, as my existing hens seemed very territorial around the feeder.

Since they are all about the same age, I was wondering if you could take one of the smallest and most docile 4 week olds (the ones picking on the new one) and see if they would 'make nice' with chee chee. I say this because introducing one new one to the flock has been much harder in my experience than 2 or more. The new ones tend to stick together and they might get picked on less if they are with a few friends.

Good luck!