What is normal in a chicken

[VickieV]

I am completely new to raising chickens. I have one rooster, Boss and for hens; Blondie, Lil Bit and Macy. I bought them all from tractor supply almost a year ago. So I really have no idea what kind of chickens they are they're all different colors and all different sizes. But my main concern is in the beginning before I knew the dangers of letting your chickens run free, little bit got attacked by a hawk I am also a nurse so of course I searched her up nurse her back to health and she was doing great but in doing this I had to keep her inside to make sure they didn't pack on her this was sometime ago since she's got back in the coop which is been almost six to eight months now she still has not started roosting with the other chickens. So she tends to stay at the bottom in the bedding and lately I've been noticing at night, because I do get up all hours of the night because I'm so worried about him, that she is pecking at the bedding but when I turn the flashlight on I don't see anything I don't even know what she's picking at is this normal.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Was she roosting with the others before the hawk incident?

 

[Floof]

Welcome to BYC! In regards to your chicken who won't roost, can you tell if she is unable to reach the roost? If she recovered well enough to jump up and down from the roost then I would just try to train her to do it again by lifting her on in the evenings until she goes on her own.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Also, can she roost on a low roost? Are her feet damaged in any way? How is her balance? Is there room for her? Are the other chickens allowing her to roost or are they pecking her?

 

[VickieV]

She's healed fine they do kind of shun her a little bit but they don't pack on her.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

That's good. But have you checked to see if she is capable of roosting at all? If you set her on the roost, does she stay there?