What do you do when an old hen is just not integrating well with a new flock?

[tweetzone86]

This one unfortunately happens to be my eight year old daughter's favorite chicken to boot, but she's bullying the others and possibly feather-picking their tail feathers. Two got to blood and we sprayed Blue Kote on everyone who had bare spots on their butts by their tails, and it was about half of the new birds. Our roo is even afraid of her, though she hasn't feather-picked him.

We did have two SLW die, possibly from feather-picking on the tail (found both dead when the new flock wasn't yet with the old one, and both had wounds in the back), so we are keeping an eye out for a possible bully in the new flock as well, and have tagged two with all tail feathers intact as possible culprits with the Blue Kote on the necks to keep an eye on them. But my eldest just threw some older grapes that are starting to turn into the run in multiple areas and the old hen ran up from one where she was eating and twice plucked another near the back hard, and she has blue kote on her beak. Hence suspicion that she's one of the tail-pluckers.

We are not set up for keeping her permanently solo. We rehomed all 8 of her hatch-mates/old flock, but kept her because she's the 8 year old's favorite and tried dog kennel (open wire) integration, but it's been two weeks and she's still showing behavior issues (she was bottom of the order in old one and skinnier- now she's fat, huge and bossy. Even the roo won't challenge her, and he and the head of the old flock had hackles up and I had to break it up before they started fighting while we waited for adopter to arrive).

I can't bring myself to butcher her because it will devastate my 8 year old (she will have to learn eventually, because we plan on getting meat chicks when our house is done and we have more shed coops built, but now is not a good time to be thrust into it, not with her 2.5 years of partiality to this one).

Urgh...they're eating Purina Flock Raiser 20% plus oyster shell on the side. We expanded the run so it's much bigger, and actually locked the new flock outside so they would stop being wusses and actually go into the run, and so the coop is 12x8, and the run is probably at least 300 square feet. 19 birds total, counting old hen. Multiple feeders and waterers spread out, and I even picked up three flock blocks yesterday to try and alleviate feather-picking (as well as blue kote on bald spots at the tail on all the others, and we isolated the two bleeding ones til the blue kote helped stop the bleeding).

Help please?

 

[azygous]

Rehoming all of this hen's former brooder mates upset her concept of "flock". It left her unmoored, without an anchor. You might have been able to keep things from going to hell in a hand basket by retaining at least one of her mates for her to associate with. As it is, she is now operating under the notion that she is, by default, head of the flock and top of the pecking order. That means that she is constantly battling all of the others to maintain this position.

Often we can see analogies to human behavior when we observe chicken flock behavior. Picture a human that has always been told what to do, how to think, how to relate to other people all of a sudden being taken out of that role and being given responsibility and a leadership role without ever being given time to grow gradually into that role through experience and accumulation of knowledge. It doesn't usually work, and usually ends badly.

So it is with chicken social order. Chickens are constantly confronting one another to determine who should rank above and below the others. Typically a chicken will move very slowly up the ranks until they find themselves at some point, usually by attrition in the flock, near the top. By that time, time and experience has mellowed them and they usually don't behave like tyrants.

It's very complex. Suffice it to say that something as radical as getting rid of a chicken's entire flock and putting her with an entirely new flock of much younger chickens is going to result in extreme stress for all of the chickens involved, and when the older chicken is the one on her own "turf", she is further enabled to believe she is entitled to lord it over all the rest.

Okay. What can be done about this? Two options. One is to ask for one of this hens' mates back so she has a cohort again. This can greatly reduce her focus on the younger members of the flock as she will once again be competing with a peer for rank in the flock. Another option is to let her go live with the mates you rehomed.

You have heard that "you can't mess with Mother Nature." Well, it's also a good idea to remember you can't mess with chicken pecking order. In each case, it's like thinking you can control a tornado headed for your house.

 

[tweetzone86]

Rehoming all of this hen's former brooder mates upset her concept of "flock". It left her unmoored, without an anchor. You might have been able to keep things from going to hell in a hand basket by retaining at least one of her mates for her to associate with. As it is, she is now operating under the notion that she is, by default, head of the flock and top of the pecking order. That means that she is constantly battling all of the others to maintain this position.

Often we can see analogies to human behavior when we observe chicken flock behavior. Picture a human that has always been told what to do, how to think, how to relate to other people all of a sudden being taken out of that role and being given responsibility and a leadership role without ever being given time to grow gradually into that role through experience and accumulation of knowledge. It doesn't usually work, and usually ends badly.

So it is with chicken social order. Chickens are constantly confronting one another to determine who should rank above and below the others. Typically a chicken will move very slowly up the ranks until they find themselves at some point, usually by attrition in the flock, near the top. By that time, time and experience has mellowed them and they usually don't behave like tyrants.

It's very complex. Suffice it to say that something as radical as getting rid of a chicken's entire flock and putting her with an entirely new flock of much younger chickens is going to result in extreme stress for all of the chickens involved, and when the older chicken is the one on her own "turf", she is further enabled to believe she is entitled to lord it over all the rest.

Okay. What can be done about this? Two options. One is to ask for one of this hens' mates back so she has a cohort again. This can greatly reduce her focus on the younger members of the flock as she will once again be competing with a peer for rank in the flock. Another option is to let her go live with the mates you rehomed.

You have heard that "you can't mess with Mother Nature." Well, it's also a good idea to remember you can't mess with chicken pecking order. In each case, it's like thinking you can control a tornado headed for your house.

Rehoming older chicken. Observed for an hour and noticed at least four pecking at tail feathers

Will they stop plucking each other's tail feathers when she leaves? She's isolated now, but really trying to prevent more chicken murders

 

[azygous]

Unfortunately, learned bad behavior doesn't disappear as easily as it began. But the good news is the behavior likely hasn't become entrenched yet. By removing the older hen, that has shaken things up.

You can capitalize on that by making cosmetic changes to the run, adding or subtracting things in the run to refocus attention to those things and away from each others tails.

These run changes can be something simple like tossing a tree branch with the leaves still on it into the run. Add a partition here and there to break up the run space and give the more timid chickens a place to run behind or rest behind.

Add a swing. These chicken swings are very popular with younger chickens. My younger pullets are using the swing as fun and to get up and away from their older tormentors.

Add a shelf or a few more perches here and there and at varying levels. Even an old camp table or old chair will add a new interesting feature to occupy the restless youngsters. An old table provides a place for an extra feeder to cut down conflicts at the other feeders. Timid chickens are usually quick to utilize these.

Have your heard of flock blocks? You can get them at most feed stores, also called scratch blocks. These keep chickens occupied for hours pecking at them and not each other.

Finally, you probably need to spend some time observing all the chickens and look for any individuals that appear to be picked on while doing little or nothing to stand up for themselves. In the case of bullying, a timid victim does more to cause the bullying than the bully. Bully victims can be rehabilitated to stand up for themselves. This virtually eliminates bullying. If that turns out to be an issue, here's an article I wrote with a technique to correct victim behavior. Save it in case you end up needing it. https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/chicken-bully-chicken-victim-a-two-sided-issue.73923/

Finally, you've found out chickens can be cannibals. This happens when there is an injury that goes unnoticed. Chickens are attracted to blood and raw tissue. By painting Blu-kote or Blue Lotion on the minor injury, it disguises the raw flesh and it also promotes healing. I've seen an injured chicken lie there and let themselves be ravaged by the others, not making any attempt to flee. It's one of the most perverse things about chicken behavior. You can't relax your guard for long with these little beasts.

 

[Sally PB]

Azygous, I learn a lot when I read your posts. Thank you.

 

[tweetzone86]

Unfortunately, learned bad behavior doesn't disappear as easily as it began. But the good news is the behavior likely hasn't become entrenched yet. By removing the older hen, that has shaken things up.

You can capitalize on that by making cosmetic changes to the run, adding or subtracting things in the run to refocus attention to those things and away from each others tails.

These run changes can be something simple like tossing a tree branch with the leaves still on it into the run. Add a partition here and there to break up the run space and give the more timid chickens a place to run behind or rest behind.

Add a swing. These chicken swings are very popular with younger chickens. My younger pullets are using the swing as fun and to get up and away from their older tormentors.

Add a shelf or a few more perches here and there and at varying levels. Even an old camp table or old chair will add a new interesting feature to occupy the restless youngsters. An old table provides a place for an extra feeder to cut down conflicts at the other feeders. Timid chickens are usually quick to utilize these.

Have your heard of flock blocks? You can get them at most feed stores, also called scratch blocks. These keep chickens occupied for hours pecking at them and not each other.

Finally, you probably need to spend some time observing all the chickens and look for any individuals that appear to be picked on while doing little or nothing to stand up for themselves. In the case of bullying, a timid victim does more to cause the bullying than the bully. Bully victims can be rehabilitated to stand up for themselves. This virtually eliminates bullying. If that turns out to be an issue, here's an article I wrote with a technique to correct victim behavior. Save it in case you end up needing it. https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/chicken-bully-chicken-victim-a-two-sided-issue.73923/

Finally, you've found out chickens can be cannibals. This happens when there is an injury that goes unnoticed. Chickens are attracted to blood and raw tissue. By painting Blu-kote or Blue Lotion on the minor injury, it disguises the raw flesh and it also promotes healing. I've seen an injured chicken lie there and let themselves be ravaged by the others, not making any attempt to flee. It's one of the most perverse things about chicken behavior. You can't relax your guard for long with these little beasts.

What a great, informative post! Thank you! That injury part might have been the two wyandottes that were killed. It was super hot, they had ventilation but they might have overheated.

I will try this I'm worried about the snow though...