[peeppeeps]

My husband and I have a small flock of hens 17 in total we add three new girls on Saturday the 15th  a Lavender Araucana, Blue Orpington and a Gold Lace Poland we know it takes a while for them to settle.

But last night we found my Poor little lady Blondie she is a Rhode Island Red cross with Orpington on the Coop floor with Blood coming from her ear and nose and laid in a heap.

Hubby brought her in and wow she looked like she did 10 rounds with Mike Tyson I thought she was going to die on me last night but she is a tough little cookie.

I have been giving her plenty of water by syringe into her mouth she is now opening one eye thank goodness we thought she had none last night.

head swollen huge purple
blood in ear and nose
not eating
not seen her pooh

is this bulling or a fight for her ranking in the flock 

she is one of our original girls we got at 4 weeks old she is only 27 weeks old most of all the girls are the same age or with in a week or two. Head hen is a bantam Barneveld, 2nd in command is also bantam Silver Laced Wyandotte I think Blondie is 4th in the pack but not sure .

Please Help any Info about this would be nice to have.

[peeppeeps]

2 more pic's

[joyfull]

this sounds like it has been a fight to sort out the pecking order and she has come off worse - did you keep them seperate for a couple of weeks but in full view of each other, do they have several feeders, drinkers, hiding places, plenty to distract themselves?

[peeppeeps]

yes we kept them apart and in view we have trays down for feeding and only one big water tank 30Ltr will but a smaller one in. 

places to hide well there is a few very long perches and things at different height but nothing to hide under or in unless they go in the coop nest boxes or the Perches inside the coop.

distractions ummm no i don't think so they have their dust bath, their dirt to scratch and wood chips to play in.

[henamoured]

How much room have they got?
Suggestions: one or two buckets on there sides, or big flower pots, to hide in.
String bag tied up with greens in.
One or two more temporary water stations (could use marg/ice cream tubs).
If you had a second coop (broody box?) that the newbies were in for the first 2 weeks perhaps you could put that in their run as another escape route.
Anti-pecking spray?
Beak bits if there are some particularly nasty bullies?

[peeppeeps]

their run is 7ft wide and 20ft long(covered) coop is 7x4 ft plus they Free Range and the hospital pen/broody coops is in use atm with 8 week old babies they just went into when we moved the others in with the rest of the flock.

[carolbriar]

For 17 hens the run doesn't sound very big really.   Is there any way you could make it bigger?

I hope they settle down and that your poorly hen is ok.

[uktitan]

I don't know if my wife (peeppeeps) mentioned or not but Half our Flock are Bantoms All of the bantoms put together would Just about Make up 1 Betty ( HUGE blue Orpington) hehe.

After getting Her and seeing how big orpingtons can get, I dread to think what Size Jersey giants get to lol.

Blondie ( our poor girl who got beat up) Is doing Much better than she was last night, we cleaned her up..Well her mummy cleaned her up ( blondie Insisted that I was the one who had to cuddle her and hold on to her) so my wife cleaned up her head with Warm water and some cotton buds, she can now Open Both eyes, Although they are very swollen and puffy poor thing, She has perked up, and is listening to us (she is in a box in the living room keeping nice and warm, she's been eating scrambled egg and drinking water and even talked to us a little.

I did talk to our Vet while i was out in town and explained what had happened, and he said it sounds very much like she Either scratched her ear or someone pecked her Ear and made it Bleed a bit, and one of the other hens spotted the Blood and started pecking at it, and that started the rest off into a frenzy ( you know what chickens are like when the See some Blood) he said If this is Indeed what happened as he suspects it more than likely is, then she's lucky to have survived.

Soo, she gets to be inside in the warm for a few days until she starts Eating on her own without help then i will transfer her into our Brooder area ( 4.5foot x2foot ) she will have a little nest, a Heat pad some water and some Nummy food to.. she will stay in there until she can walk around well enough, and im satisfied that her head is healed So.

[peeppeeps]

Good news she has made Blondie still has 2 black eyes but both are open now and she is eating and drinking on her own  and she is back with the Flock and seems really happy. no one was bullying her but they seem so happy to have her back as they all were out free ranging so we added her back to flock and all was well.

[joyfull]

so pleased, keep a close eye on her for a while just to make sure it doesn't happen again.