PoultryTalk.com

Hi guys, hope you are all well.

We currently have 6 brown hens some have abit of white on them some don't but they all seem to get along. We originally started with 5 chickens but deicided to get an even 6. We got the 6th chicken from the same place we got the other 5 (a battery farm). We have had the 6th chicken 2 days now and the others are bullying it pretty badly. They are trying to peck at it's face & feathers.

There seems to be 4 that bully her quite badly and one that will tolerate the 6th chickens company. I have tried putting some Vaseline on the red bit on top of her head. It seems as though shes taken a couple of pecks to it nothing major but there was some small cuts.

Like I said above I've tried Vaseline and try to keep them busy with new things like planting wild grass in the coop, fresh sand in their tyre, raking the coop out. I've also cleaned the coop out changed all the sawdust and the hay in there. There is plenty of food in there, they have 2 feeders one outside one inside with laying pellets in them. There is only one source of water though. I feed them mealworms and mixed corn/seeds daily so it cant be because they are hungry could it?

The 6th chicken wont come outside of the shed unless im in the coop. Even then the other chickens go for her but I usually stop this buy hitting them away. I feel really bad that I have brought her in to this :(. When shes inside the shed she will just hide under the water barrel and the others dont bother her then. They also all sleep together at night fine. It just seems to be in the day that the bullying starts.

I've just bought some Anti Feather Pecking spray which should be here soon. Other than what I've already tried does anyone have any solutions?

Hi Mike. Unfortunately you have done the wrong thing by introducing just one newcomer! We did this last year and our cream legbar was having a real tough time! We got some really great info from Kirsty at home 4 hens. You should only intoduce new hens in at least two or even better three. We put our legbar (Gatty) in an enclosure within the original enclosure so the old hens could see the new one but not get to her. WE then introduced another new hen the same age (Scatty) to Gatty and left them to get used to each other so that Gatty had company and didn't pine. Scatty and Gatty lived together in the enclosure for about a month and then little by little we let the 2 new ones out with the old girls and they all finally settled down.

You could try vicks vapour rub to stop the pecking but if your other hens don't accept her she will be lonely, and hens need company. You could try the above method.

We just got three new hens to introduce into our flock of seven and this time it was so much easier. Because we introduced 3 hens the pecking was not focussed on just one. We put the 3 new girls into the eglu cube at night on the first night and sprayed all the hen's backs with a weak vinegar solution, so they wouldn't notice the smell of the new girls so much. This time round there was a lot of pecking and running but they have all settled down and it only took 3 weeks.

Regards Mrs Tweedy

Thanks for the help, do you think it would be better to get a 7th chicken and keep the one I've just got and the 7th one together and slowly introduce them?

Hi Mike. Yes that was what worked for us. Be aware that even with putting a 7th with the 6th there will be some bickering and pecking, but when that calms down 6 and 7 will have company while the rest of your hens get used to the new girls. You will need to rig up some sort of fence of wire or netting to keep the two groups apart but where they can see each other. We gave our two about a month for the other girls to get used to the new hens.
It also helps to put the food for the old hens near the food for the new ones (on either side of the netting) so that they get used to feeding near each other.

It is quite a shock seeing a group of hens going for a single hen in such a vicious way. Aparently they can peck a lone hen to death. We were horrified when our five went for our beautiful cream legbar.
Good luck.

Alternatively Mike, you could try something which worked for a friend of mine last year, she took out the main 'Bully' and put her in a separate cage away from the others, she put the newcomer in a cage next to her for a day, then she put the newbie and the bully together for a few more days, the two became the best of friends, she then re-introduced the pair to the reast of the flock at night when they had all gone in the shed, this sorted the problem.It worked because the bully hen had no choice but to befriend the newbie, as she would have been on her own, it plays on the flock instinct. But as stated above, never just introduce one hen to an existing flock, it will get beaten up big time!Just one thing to add, be careful using vapour rub on chickens skin, it can cause blisters and reek havoc with their eyes if accidently rubbed in!
JubesX

Hi guys thanks fior the ideas, things are slowly settling down now. I found that one of my original chickens will tolerate the new chickens company so I set up a tempory coop on the outside of the main one and put the two chickens together. All the chickens can see each other but the other four can't get to the new one. I put them all together at night because for some strange reason they all seem fine together at night. I've also got some Net-Tex anti peck spray. This hasn't really helped as far as I can tell. I sprayed them all with it anyway so they all smell the same. If theres no further improvment in a month or so I will try putting a board across the chicken wire so they can't see the other chickens and are forced to become friends as you say Jubilee :)

I was also thinking of adding a third chicken to the two I have seperated so there is three in each coop but we'll see how they are in a couple of weeks first.
Thanks for all the help, it's greatly appriciated.

P.S the new comb on the new chicken is alot smaller than the 5 I got from the start and is pink not red. Could this be anything to do with the bullying?

In total agreement with tweedy and jubilee, we do introduce single birds into breeding flocks from time to time and have found several methods of distracting the other birds, always introduce the newbies when the other birds have roosted and we hang corn on the cob from the roofs of the runs and also make up peck blocks for the birds so when they all come out first thing in the morning they are greeted with lots of treats, there is always a little bit of bullying to start with but this only lasts for a day or two, if this fails then change the pen around, add different things like a rotting log or a piece of turf, the secret is distraction.
As for vicks, I wouldn't personally use it because of the strenght of it, like jubilee says iit could cause a lot of problems if it went into eyes. Mustard is a good anti feather peck, but there are a number of sprays available which work