Will the older chickens harm the disformed younger chicken?

[DAMAEO]

Hi, we are fairly new to raising chickens. We bought our first batch from Rural King back in March of this year. 17 of them and they are healthy and strong and laying eggs and doing great. In April we revisited rural king and they had two baby chicks all alone in a crate, their brothers and sisters had all been sold. We asked what kind they were and offered to bring them home. Turned out one was a Bantam and one was an Amber link. We decide to keep them separate until they were big enough to adjust to the larger flock. The Bantam has florist but is so tiny we are afraid to let her around the big ones although I have a feeling it's a rooster the way it tries to Crow. But the Amber link is huge the only problem is it appears that one of her legs is kind of backwards! Her knee bends the wrong way it never bothered her when she was younger and we didn't address it but now that her body is bigger she falls down a few times if she hits a bump in the ground or something. Other than that it doesn't bother her at all but she looks so sad that every time we try to introduce her to the larger chickens they go to pecking her right away! If we just let them fight it out will she survive and be OK or do you think that because her feather's aren't completely in yet and she looks lame that they will peck her until she dies? And is the little Bantam safe enough to survive the larger flock? They were both brought home in April it is now August the other chickens have only been here since March and they were chicks and we got them as well…

 

[andreanar]

Can you start keeping them in the same coop, but separated with some chicken wire? It will help if they can live together, hear and see each other but not be able to hurt each other for some time. It takes time to integrate. Yes they may peck her to death, if they peck and draw blood they sometimes keep going till death or serious injury. I doubt they are picking on her because of her disability, they pick on her because she is new and want to establish pecking order. Eventually, you should be able to have them all together.

 

[Kiki]

You may want to start daily vitamins for the "broken leg" girl.
https://sites.google.com/a/poultrypedia.com/poultrypedia/poultry-podiatry

• Essential nutrients include:
  • Calcium (in appropriate amount--Adult feeds can have too much calcium for chicks), Vitamin E, Selenium.
  • VITAMIN B IS VERY IMPORTANT for leg health. Just adding a Vitamin B Complex to a chicken's food will cure some leg problems.