I've got a bully

[Aileen]

I have been monitoring a fairly feisty girl of mine over the last 4-5 days and she is one grumpy chicken! I thought that maybe she was giving one of the others a bit of a hard time, she is in actual fact terrorising the other 4! When she comes in the coop panic ensues and the girls flee and if she is out of the coop she stands at the bottom of the ladder / steps and has a go at every one trying to get in away from her.....
Today I stuck her in a "naughty cage" inside the run to give the girls a bit of respite but they can still seeeach other,and Ijust want to know is this the best thing to do going forward,should I be removing her completely for a few days?
She is terrible , it like she's constantly grumbling under her breath, its funny but she even pecks me :roll:

 

[Bertie & The Chooks]

I have been monitoring a fairly feisty girl of mine over the last 4-5 days and she is one grumpy chicken! I thought that maybe she was giving one of the others a bit of a hard time, she is in actual fact terrorising the other 4! When she comes in the coop panic ensues and the girls flee and if she is out of the coop she stands at the bottom of the ladder / steps and has a go at every one trying to get in away from her.....
Today I stuck her in a "naughty cage" inside the run to give the girls a bit of respite but they can still seeeach other,and Ijust want to know is this the best thing to do going forward,should I be removing her completely for a few days?
She is terrible , it like she's constantly grumbling under her breath, its funny but she even pecks me :roll:

I have a girl like that, she was like that when she went broody. she's calmed down now though, we moved her to isolation until she began to moult a bit and then we moved her over. she still pecks one little hen but we ended up moving that hen out in the end to let her get her feathers back. we keep the tidbits and pecks up and it seems ok at the moment, but we have yet to integrate the other one again as she's still healing.

 

[Marigold]

I would remove her, out of sight and sounds of the others if possible, for at least a week, two would be better. This will give the others time to recover, and during that time they will re-establish a new pecking order without her. When she is returned she will find herself 'demoted' and the trouble should be over. But it will work best if you can harden your heart and give plenty of time for this 'treatment' to work - if she is returned too soon, or can see the others whilst cooped on her own, things will just carry on as before. What you want is for them to treat her as a 'new' chicken to the flock, so they will need time to 'forget' her and for a new social order to establish itself.

 

[Aileen]

Right, Isolation wing is coming out. I will remove her tonight when the others are all settled. Will report back soon.

On the upside, I took my poorly chook "Droopy" to the vets today fully expecting to say goodbye and he said give her more time as he thinks she is looking better!!! She is still very quiet but she ran (sort of)today and had a bit of a flap which is a first! So am pretty delighted about that. I still might lose her as she is a poorly chook but at least I have her for now.. The twisted little witch is keeping grumpy company! She is sat at the side of the naughty cage... ...
Actually, what I may do is stick Droopy and Grumpy in a pen together for the next couple of weeks and let that way I can monitor them for health and grump-o-meter!

 

[foxy]

Sound advice from Marigold, sounds like your hen needs relegating to a lower perch!..

 

[Marigold]

Right, Isolation wing is coming out. I will remove her tonight when the others are all settled. Will report back soon.

Actually, what I may do is stick Droopy and Grumpy in a pen together for the next couple of weeks and let that way I can monitor them for health and grump-o-meter!

I don't think that sounds very good for Droopy, not only because Grumpy may bully her, but because Droopy will have problems reintegrating when returned to the flock. Could you perhaps keep her with the other hens, assuming nobody else is bullying herr, and maybe give her a corner of the run netted off where she can spend part of the day on her own for a bit of peace to recover in?

 

[chrismahon]

We had a similar problem and took the bully out for three days but alongside the others run. She seemed to calm down in that period. But when we reintroduced her the whole pecking order had changed and she literally fought her way back to the top. So it caused even more of an upset. So I tried an alternative approach and established myself as the top hen by picking her up every time I went near them and carrying her around with me for 10 minutes, despite her struggling and complaining. Within a week she would see me and run off but more importantly she calmed down and left the others alone.

 

[Aileen]

Grump doesn't tend to acknowledge Droopy but I had thot of that, not so much the re-integration so thank you for that more the what if she turns on her. Hmmmm not sure now after Chris's post.. I will try to be top hen for a few days to see how that works, sorry this is making me :lol:
Tell me Chris how did you cope laying an egg then, did it hurt 07 07 07 :lol:

 

[Marigold]

We had a similar problem and took the bully out for three days but alongside the others run. She seemed to calm down in that period. But when we reintroduced her the whole pecking order had changed and she literally fought her way back to the top. So it caused even more of an upset..

Maybe 3 days wasn't long enough?

 

[Aileen]

Day 4 of isolation..
And the weather has gone cold..... 5 miles down the road from me got their first flurry of snow.
Grumpy is one of my baldy's, I am abit concerned about her getting cold on her lonesome.
Should I risk public ridicule and make her a body warmer????
At night I am sticking her in my shed on top of a hay bale and there's plenty of straw in her little temporary house but it has dropped quite significantly temperature wise over the last 48 hours.

 

[tygrysek75]

Day 4 of isolation..
And the weather has gone cold..... 5 miles down the road from me got their first flurry of snow.
Grumpy is one of my baldy's, I am abit concerned about her getting cold on her lonesome.
Should I risk public ridicule and make her a body warmer????
At night I am sticking her in my shed on top of a hay bale and there's plenty of straw in her little temporary house but it has dropped quite significantly temperature wise over the last 48 hours.

Do not worry to much she will be fine as long as dry and not windy.

 

[Marigold]

So long as she is feeding well, has shelter and is dry at night, she's be OK. Today was the first evening I gave my chooks a hot mash at teatime - they just gobbled it down. Only layers pellets soaked in hot water, but they did all go to bed with bulging crops to keep them warm!

Is Droopy in with the others at night? How is she getting on? I'd be more concered about her than about Grumpy, as she may feel the cold more, being poorly.

 

[Aileen]

Droop is, dare I say it doing really well. She is always last out in the morning and last to get brekkie but she's not daft when it comes to bed time, she's in first every night. She comes over for a cuddle EVERY time I go out into the garden, I never realised I was in and out as often! She even pecks the little window on the coop if she's inside and hears me pottering about out side. She is still very quiet and last night her crop was squidgy again but a massage and some ACV stright down her throat and ACV in water today and she seems ok. Today she even said hello to the dog, nose to beak style was a very proud mummy moment LOL!
Grumpy is in the shed at night, I feel really sorry for her, she is still really feisty even with me, but she's a character too in her own way, a real Victor Meldrew, always grumbling about something under her breath :lol:
I think Grump is bossy as she is the only one that is actually laying. The other girls combs are better than they were but still pink. I am beginning to wonder if they will lay at all this year....
As for the cold, I have looked out my old faithful hot water bottles and it's getting to the warm mash / porridge time of year as you say. I will keep an eye on Grump with her being on her own and if I feel she's getting cold I will just bring her into my much abused downstairs loo at night.
Honestly its never ending.... but I wouldn't have it any other way, g'night x

 

[Aileen]

Thats grump been in solitary for a week now, she's starting to look pretty forlorn all by herself. Should I think about re-integration...?

Also, as I type this I am sat with a dying little girl on my lap (not Droopy!) completely shocked as they are all coming on so well........... her eyes are shut and all she is doing is twitching, yet she was fine 2 hours ago! I took out their elevenses and found her lying on her side. I am just making sure she doesn't die alone

 

[Marigold]

Oh dear, so sorry to hear that Aileen. Chickens are very good at hiding it when they're feeling poorly, so maybe she was actually feeling unwell earlier but you wouldn't have been able to spot it. Were the symptoms similar to what Droopy had? If she's made it through today and is still alive, there may be hope still. I had one once that I fully expected to die overnight and next day she was bossing everyone about as normal. All you can do is keep her warm and quiet and if possible get her to drink some water, this is more important than food though that will help if she gets up enough to be able to take something soft and nourishing.

Why do these things always happen at weekends, when the vet's on expensive call-out? Let us know how she gets on, if she's still with you.

 

[Aileen]

I put her in with the others this pm after 8-9 days of being seperate... and they scarpered........
I brouight her straight back out but how badly have I potentially set things back :-(
I am starting to fret a bit as Grumpy got a bit agitated this pm as a result and I feel bad about it, she's totally fed up being cooped up on her own....

 

[chrismahon]

Could leave her out until she gets into a moult -if she does. They get a bit droopy then and are less inclined to fight. One of ours (Loulou) was knocked right back down the pecking order after she brooded some chicks and I put her back too soon, before she had regained her strength. She has been running away from her shadow for the last year. But she was the first to moult and therefore the first to recover and has shot up to number 2 overtaking our bully Dandilion (who I had knocked down to number 2, below me, anyway). She's still friendly to me as well. -great to see her back to her former self. She's quite small but is really gutsy and a great mother.