[prettychick]

hi everyone, now that we are left with 3 girls we have another problem, our speckledy was broody for about 5 weeks but she is over that now but the other 2 are picking on her ever since she has rejoined them. The other morning there was feathers everywhere and while I do not think they pulled all of them out because she may be moulting I have witnessed them both attacking her quite badly. The problem is i have read that the bully should be split away but I have 2 bullies so I'm in need of help. I cant bear her being unhappy and picked on.

[freebirdy]

Hi there, the first post I ever put on here was regarding bullying. My (as she was then - 10wk old baby polled bant) was being bullied by ALL my other birds! It was 6 onto 1!!! She was being chased around the garden, pinned down, pecked, feathers being pulled and screaching in terror to the point she would collapse.
I obviously couldn't remove "the bully bird" as it was all of them so I removed Lucy! She was placed in a pen on her own in the garden where she was safe and the other girls could see her but not get to her.
She soon gained confidence as she seemed to know she couldn't be got at and the others soon began to loose interest as they knew they couldn't get to her!!
I let her out as much as I could when I was in the garden and supervised the odd peck with a quick shove to the offending bird! They soon got the idea - come near - whallop!
After 2 agonising weeks she was let out and intergrated in with the big girls. She's still a nervous bird and will run if they get a bit too close but there is no horrendous bullying, just normal odd peck here and there that goes on all down the pecking order.
There is always a bird at the bottom of the pile but stick with it!
|Good luck, hope all goes well as I know how totally devestating it can be to see a bird being bullied so badly.
As a foot note, I now have 2 more bants, (14 wks old)got them last weekend, dreaded a repeat of the Lucy episode but... they have gone straight in, odd peck aimed at them now and again so just goes to show how fickle chickens can be!!!

[Lewjam]

Im from the school of let them get on with it...

If there are no real lasting (blood) injuries they just get on with it.  Make sure there are plenty of feeders and water stations and they should just get on with it.  It will soon settle down.

Chickens are flock animals that the naturarly nasty to each other to set the order of things.

[prettychick]

thankyou both for your replies, i was thinking i would have to put her in a seperate run but may see how it goes for another day or two as today things seem to have calmed down a bit, her new feathers are growing really quickly and nicely so we will see. I do value your comments because sometimes i think these things only seem to happen to us when all we want are happy healthy girls