How can I find my old pictures?

[alderandash]

I have 4 hens, as of about 10 days ago. I posted a few days ago about a very sad incident when one of the hens was badly injured by 1 or 2 of the others - so much so that she died shortly after I rescued her. (There had been some pecking/aggression towards her but it had seemed to calm down, before the attack). After much helpful advice on this forum, I now have the two gentle hens (both Bluebells) in one run, and the aggressive hen (Light Sussex, LS) separated at night with her pal (part White Leghorn, WL). The two white hens seem very happy together. By day, I'm now letting all 4 completely free range together - the LS is mainly interested in foraging, but has bouts of driving the Bluebelles away from feed/water (I have 2 or more lots out for them at all times.) She is still aggressive towards them, going out of her way to peck them if she can. This may all be normal pecking order stuff, but after what happened to our poor Rhode Rock I'm taking no chances. My question is, should I put the White Leghorn in with the Bluebells for a few days - and then reintroduce my bully hen? (The WL is sort of calmly dominant - she was certainly part of the attack on the other hen, but is not aggressive towards the Bluebells). I've been reading lots of posts on this and opinion seems to vary. Some say that taking the bully away for a few days will bring her down the pecking order, and let the other 3 form their own 'flock', and the bully will therefore be less aggressive when reintroduced. Others suggest that, if she's very aggressive/dominant, keeping her away will just delay the pecking order struggles and she'll try to assert herself by bullying the Bluebells when she is reintroduced. Sorry, I know no one can give me a definite answer, I'm sure it depends on the situation, the hens etc. I just wondered what people thought. I know it's still relatively early days and may all settle down on its own, I just don;t want to risk another hen being injured. Also - the breeder (who's been really helpful) suggested putting all the hens in together at night after spraying the coop, and wiping them, with dilute vinegar - so they wake up smelling the same, and are more likely to accept each other. Has anyone tried this?! (Just to explain, the hens are about 20 weeks POL, they all came from the same breeder and were living in the same mixed-breed & mixed colour group of about 25 hens. They are in at night, FR by day. OH and me both work from home and can be around a lot - although the hens are not that close to the house. ) All advice welcome!!

[good_egg]

Poor you having such a rough start. Can totally understand the caution. I don't have an answer I'm afraid - my attempt at intros wasn't a success but I think that was the setup and the age gap. I did introduce two babies (7 and 8 weeks) to two other babies (10 and 12 weeks) and that went ok. Sprayed them all as I put them in cube at night - with lavender pillow spray though, relaxing and all I had to hand! The only observation I would have is that my littlest Annette is bottom of the pecking order and if she attempts to eat before Buffy (top) or Dot (second) then she will get chased away. There is never more than a lunge, or occasionally a peck to the ruff of the neck (so no chasing to speak of or any major pecking) but it is definitely there. Was the same with my older girls. Would never expect it to go so if that's what you are seeing you probably are ok.

[alderandash]

Thanks good-egg...I like the idea of lavender spray! Thanks for describing what your hens do/the level of pecking - it's hard for a newbie to know what's normal and what's excessive!! (And I'm now super-cautious now after what happened before). I'm a bit concerned as our 'bully hen' does seem particularly dominant. For example, tonight she and her pal needed a bit of encouragement to go back into their sleep-quarters (they free-range) - we very gently 'herded' them, and one hen calmly walked in - but bully hen turned around, stood her ground, and faced off a line of 3 humans all walking towards her, without moving an inch!! She's also very smart and figures everything out before the other hens (days before, in the case of the Bluebells... ) I wonder if putting her in a bumpa bit (not sure if I've spelled that right) would help, or at least reassure me that she can't do any really serious damage...She seems to be feather-pecking (her room-mate is loosing tail feathers) - and I found her with an eaten egg this morning (not 100% sure it was her though) - so she may have other issues too! Aaagh!

[Egluntyne]

I'd put Bumpa bit on her. It will make the pecking less vicious and will also make egg pecking difficult.