4m x 3m Omlet pen, cube, new auto door still boxed and coop light

[Ella]

I have 3 chickens 2 German Vorwerk bantams and a wellsummer they are all hens. My Grandad got me a Golden Seabright hen i put her in the run with the other chickens and as we expected they picked on her and were still picking on her after 5 weeks. I noticed she had a open wound on her head where she's been pecked. We took her out of the run and put her in a cage on her own so the wound would heal. My grandad was speaking to some body who told him that if you painted the wound with stockholm tar it would help it to heal and if I put her back in the run with the other girls they would leave her alone and she would eventually get accepted.

 

Does anyone know if this is correct please help.

[LittleBoPeep]

Hi Ella, we had an almost identical situation with our new chicken who we introduced to our other 8. They pecked her so badly she had massive hole behind her comb and I had to separate her. They do free range together but are kept apart at night.

 

It is taking time but hopefully it will work out.

 

Good luck.

 

xx

[Hangman]

They are establishing the "pecking order" - I imagine you have two rather strong minded hens who still haven't decided which rank they are, hence the fighting has continued. It will eventually subside, but if you feel that the hen is being injured, if you have space, it may be prudent to set up a 'seperate' run which is very close to the 'main' one so that they can see each other during the day whilst they are outside. Letting them free range together often helps too.

[Egluntyne]

Often the flash points are around food. If you set up several food and drink stations, they will all see that there is enough food for everyone, and as they can't 'man' them all, it might calm things down a bit.

 

If you blast them with a hosepipe it can shock them out of fighting.

 

Getting them to share treats is a useful way of getting them to tolerate each other.

 

Articles **here** about managing intros.