Bullied chicken - is it OK to keep her on her own?

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Nick

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Hi All,
Ages ago I got a single specledy chicken to add to my flock. This was of course a mistake, but a chicken I had bought turned out to be a cockeral, and the breeder offered the hen as a swap.
The hen suffered some kind of injury, which has left her rather wobbly and unable to walk well - she has been to several vets, all pronounce her fit and well and cant see why she struggles to walk.
All has been well, but recently, after one of the others in the flock went broody and successfully hatched out 4 purchased eggs (I dont have a cockeral) the top chicken has been brutally attacking the lame speckledy, leaving her with a deep gash in the top of her head. I tried splitting them up for a week - keeping the speckely in my rasperry cage so she could see the others, and she roosted with them at night. I put her back in 'gen pop' today, only to come home from work to find her bleeding again.
What on earth should I do? Cull her? (would be a shame) cant imagine anyone else would want her - although she is a good layer. She cant stay in the rasperry cage - but, I could bring her down to live alone in the back garden. I know keeping a chicken on her own is not the done thing, but surely it would be better than waiting for the flock to finally kill her...

Confused.....

Nick
 
Is it just, or mainly, the top hen who attacks her, Nick? Sometimes it helps to isolate the bully, preferably out of sight and sound of the others, for a week or two, and then when she 's returned to the flock, the flock dynamics will have changed, with luck the speckledy will have found a notch on the ladder, and the bully will have been demoted. You would need to let the speckledy heal up first, of course, as any blood will cause the others to attack her anyway. If she is able to roost with them at night, that's good, but you would have to find a safe place for the bully so she doesn't join them at all for a while. Maybe a box in a shed or something overnight, so she's safe and dry but not in contract with the others. When you first try returning the speckledy, another thing you could try is to divide the run with mesh and put her in one side with the hen who is lowest in the pecking order and therefore the least threatening, and see if they can get on amicably together. After a few days you could try adding the next one up the scale, and then when you get three who are OK together they can probably meet the rest of them and give each other support as a group. You didn't say how many hens you have, but she would get more confidence if she had a companion or two in the flock to hang out with.
 
Thanks for that Marigold - it is only the top hen that bullies her. Our flock is made up of the Speckledy, A full grown welsummer who is the top chicken, a full grown Barnevelder and her four chicks who are about 8 weeks old now - I think they may be two cocks and two hens. I could certainly remove the Welsummer and bring her down to the back garden - we have a dog kennel she could roost in. There are definately leaders and followers appearing in the chicks, but I'm not sure they would like being seperated from their mum, but still in sight, so I might have to try something like letting the speckledy heal up then return her to the flock and remove the boss.
Interesting ideas.
Thanks again!
 
Oh, I should say, they dont have a run as such, they free range on our allotment....
 
How do you stop them getting on to other people's allotments then, Nick?
I didn't realise there were only two other grown hens involved. You could perhaps try penning the Speckledy with the Barnvelder and her chicks in the raspberry cage during the day, once the Speckledy has healed up. If she had been living there for a few days on her own beforehand, this would give her the advantage of holding the territory, and if the Welsummer was excluded from this group for a while, perhaps things might calm down of their own accord. anyway the idea is to divide and rule, ie to disrupt the present social structure and hope a new balance can be achieved.
 
I've got a pretty big rural style allotment, with a fence round it. They can easily jump over the fence, but they dont.
I definately like the idea of removing the Welsummer from the flock for a week or so, and see what happens. Naturally, this is all happening two weeks before I go on holiday for a fortnight and someone else will be looking after the flock!
Thanks for the ideas!
 
Well,

after keeping her in the raspberry cage for a coupld of weeks to let her head heal, she is back in 'gen pop' and at the moment no bullying...
We shall see - probably everyone is too stressed out about the crowing of one of my 'chicks' I hatched out 10 weeks ago!
 
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