[lottychick]

This is on behalf of my dad as he has just gone on holiday! We had one, roughly 4 years old Chicken (Pauline!), who we got about three years ago, ex battery. She's lived on her own for about half a year now, and on Saturday the 26th of November, we introduced three new, ex battery hens. Pauline, has stayed in the sleeping part of the run for the past two days, as when she comes out, the new hens attack her and nip her, meaning shes not eating or drinking propperly because she doesnt get a chance. At the moment, Ive let her out in the garden on her own, so that she isnt forced to stay in the bedroom going hungry! I dont really know alot about chickens, but Im in charge of them for the next week!
Any advice on what to do would be blimmin marvelous!! Im worried about her, and dont know what to do! Thanks very much!!!

[helens-hens]

Hi there, this is unfortunately quite normal as they are trying to establish a pecking order.

As you rightly point out, it is important that she has access to food & drink - are you able to provide several containers of food and water (for now anything you have to hand will do) as the new hens will then find it difficult to defend all the eating/drinking 'stations'.

If you don't have another house / run that Pauline could go into then I have heard you can put a couple of buckets on their side in the run as a place where bullied hens can find some refuge.

Hope this helps, I can understand you have been put in a tricky situation 

[bygrace]

If you don't have another house / run that Pauline could go into then I have heard you can put a couple of buckets on their side in the run as a place where bullied hens can find some refuge.

A cat box works quite well as a refuge too.

[lottychick]

Thankyou for your help! Is it right to seperate her by putting her in the garden or will that cause more issues when introducing her again?
They will have to sleep together whether they like it or not I think? :/
But I will put some more food out and try and find some boxes for her.
Thankyou xx

[helens-hens]

Unless things get too bad, I think it is best if they can be kept together because as you say you can get problems when trying to reintroduce them - I guess it depends how bad the bullying is.

Hopefully night time in the hen house should be OK - hens should get dopy & sleep when it gets dark.

[nerdle]

I'm a total novice so I may be worng but I heard its a good idea to let new hens look at each other for a few days first (divided) then (in your case) perhaps divide them into two sets of two hens.  If they peck at least its not one againt three and it's a stepping stone to extabilishing who is boss?

[themagicaltoad1]

You might also want to get some purple spray in to spray on any bloodied areas, they can be pretty savage and 3 against 1 is not good. I agree with nerdle, it would be better if you could have them separated into pairs to start with.