Poorly chicken

[madchick]

Hi there

 

I need some advise on bullying.

I have 2 ex-batt Rhode Island Reds that I have had about 9 months. I introduced them to my other ex-batts with little problem but Amber has turned out to have a big attitude and even attacks my cats. We lost the last f the old ex-batts a couple of weeks ago and so last week we had two more ex-barn hens-2 hubbard hens. One "Annie"is really featherless,walks with a limp and is a real coward around Amber and Sapphy. Both of them bully her and peck at her all the time. Poor "Betty" gets it too but she can get away. "Annie" runs up to me crying like a baby and just wants to come in the house and get away from them. I have tried to intergrate them but whenever Annie and Betty are eating Amber and Sapphy want their food instead. They chase her out of the eglo. Can anyone give me some advise as to what to do. If need be I will have to keep them separate perminently but this wasn't what I wanted to do.

 

Any advise greatly received

[surfer_chicken]

I introduced our new chicken (Mildred) to (Lily) on Thursday, which has lead to a lot of bullying. Lily chases Mildred as soon as she is in eye sight and grabs hold of her neck feathers etc. to the point where Mildred now keeps as far away as possible.

 

We only have one eglu and there's not much space in our garden, so, like you, we have tried not to keep them completely separate. It seems to have gone ok so far. We give Mildred half an hour intervals during the day where we let Lily FR so she can eat, drink and relax with no trouble, and we have also created a "time out" corner next to their area, made out of some spare netting we had, which we put Lily in for ten minutes or so when she is overly aggressive. Putting vaseline on Mildred's comb and wattles also seemed to help and Lily couldn't get a grip on them.

 

Four days later and we are just getting the occasional squabble, but nothing more than a quick chase around the garden, so hopefully they'll completely settle down soon