Young hen sleeping outdoors, bottom of pecking order

[Songduck]

Hello, I am relatively new to chickens and need some advice. We have three 2 yr old girls who all get on nicely, no obvious hierarchy and all sleep in the coop wedged in together on the same perch. I introduced two new pullets in the spring, sadly one was never accepted, mercilessly bullied for months (even though they are completely free range, they would go hunting her) and spent her time hiding up in the rafters of our stables, she rarely came down and finally got poorly and died a few weeks ago. The other is mostly accepted, thank god, hangs out with them all day, dust bathes with them etc. and perches next to them during the day when they are resting. But she is definitely the bottom of the pecking order, and will get a peck if she displeases anyone. She runs away if any of them look at her funny. Anyway, my problem is that she still sleeps up in the rafters of the stable by herself, above the hen house, and it will get very cold soon. She used to snuggle up with the other young hen before she died. Is there any way of getting her brave enough to sleep in the house? There are lower perches available for her and a nesting box to hide in away from pecks. Another trouble is she isn’t at all tame so I can’t pick her up and put her in myself. I don’t want her to freeze to death up there

 

[sourland]

She is not going to go into the coop voluntarily. As long as the barn is draft free there is little chance of her freezing to death unless your temperatures are very extreme.

 

[Songduck]

Thanks - no, the barn is full of holes and drafts unfortunately, it’s just a corrugated iron roof balanced on rotting planks of wood really! We live in Snowdonia so we do get some cold-ish temperatures. Do you know what sort of temperatures you should begin to worry about a chicken sleeping on their own?

 

[aart]

Do you know what sort of temperatures you should begin to worry about a chicken sleeping on their own?

Chicken don't really keep each other warm.
Some pics of the barn and coop would help here.

Snowdonia

The national park in Wales?

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It's easy to do, and then it's always there!

 

[Songduck]

Thanks! I’ve added my location now. Yes, in North Wales UK. I guess it gets down to about -5 C here in winter sometimes, rarely lower (we are close to the coast). I’m surprised to hear chickens don’t keep each other warm - mine all squash together on one perch when it’s a bit cold and spread out when it’s warm so I assumed they were sharing body heat. I’ll see if I can get some photos of the coop and stable today. The coop would normally be outside actually but we moved it in when there was a chicken lockdown due to avian flu and never got around to moving it back out!