[Carshay]

Last Tuesday I got three new girls to join my gang of nine (definitely the last new ones - chickens are too addictive!) The largest one,a skyline is fine and the other skyline who is a bit smaller seems to be coping with the bullying more or less, however the Babcock is the smallest and as soon as she's on the ground she is getting badly bullied to the extent now that she won't come off the coop roof. I have started feeding her by hand up there as I am worried she won't get any food and especially water. She certainly tucks in but I am worried I am encouraging her to stay there. My thought was to carry on until she either gets braver or big enough to cope. They are all about 17 wks old. Any advice ais very welcome thanks

[Chrysalis]

Can you separate her for a bit, or even separate the main bully?  After a few days you could try putting her in at night.... the others may forget she was not there!

Others will have more advice, I'm sure. 
It does get better.   We had ours apart for about four weeks, but all fine now. Some folks try putting them in together and just hope for the best...
They WILL settle down, so be patient.

[Mrs Bee]

We are having the same sort ofthing at the moment. We introduced 3 new ones. They are all getting picked on and were hiding on top of the cube.

We put food and water up there for a few days to see if it would calm down.

It didn't, so we have fenced off part of the run so the new girls can play together while the others get used to them.

Just before bed time we lock the new girls in the space under the cube and the old girls are on lock out.

We wait until it is nearly dark before letting the old girls in and there is less pecking.

We did something like this the last time and it finally settled down.

I know it will all settle down eventually but it is upsetting to watch.