Chicken Bullying

My attempt to integrate my 3 new chickens into the older crew was a colossal failure. Last night I snuck the youngins into the coop and everyone appeared to go to sleep on the same perch. This morning when I went to the coop to check up I found two of them huddled alone in the coop and one half dead hiding underneath the plank that connects the coop to the run.

Peacock, one of my older hens was making all kinds of noise from atop the hay bail and the other girls were roaming around innocently. The two chicks that had hid out in the coop were fine, but the one hiding under the plank was anything but fine. The older girls, and by old, I mean one year old, had brutally pecked her. She had a big gaping wound on top of her head, on the side of her head and one on her wing. The good news is that she's still alive.

I took her inside and gently washed her wounds with a wet washcloth. Then I put some "cut heal" ointment on the wounds. I then found one of our old dog crates and put towels, food and water inside with the injured bird. Other than infection, a big concern with injured chickens is shock. Providing a warm, dark, non-stimulating environment is essential.

I knew home remedies weren't going to cut it so I started tracking down avian vets. As it turned out, the vet I take my dogs to also cares for farm animals and was still open. This was a huge relief because I trust my vet.

At the vet's office, my chicken received an antibiotic shot and some oral pain medicine. The vet seemed to think she would pull through so long as her wounds did not get any more infected. The key, he told me, in addition to keeping her warm, clean and dry was to prevent flys from laying eggs in the wound. If that happened, game over. So, my chicken will remain in the fly free laundry room in the dog crate for a couple days and then she should be able to go back with her sisters. When we got home I was relieved to see her eating. If a sick animal or human is eating, that's a good sign.

The vet also gave me some tips on dealing with the pecking chickens and on integrating the chickens. For starters he advised that I trim their beaks. Per his specific instruction I clipped the sharp part off and then took a Dremel drill and buffed it out.

I used the cone shaped attachment

This may sound cruel but, if you look at the beak of a chicken closely, you'll notice that it very much resembles a nail. They were certainly not pleased with me messing with their beaks, but I didn't feel like a maniac animal torturer during the process. I took as little beak as possible off and felt like a chicken nail technician in the process. Also, I believe it's more cruel to leave them with the ability to harm each other than to not intervene. Chickens are the ultimate bullies and the "pecking order" is not bullshit.

This morning, at the scene of the crime I immediately separated all the young chickens from the old and have since learned some important lessons on the integration of chicken flocks. I naively thought that just sneaking them in at night would be sufficient. I thought there might be a couple days of tension in the coop but was completely unprepared for the situation I walked into this Saturday morning. Here are the mistakes I made:

• I kept my portable coop far away from the permanent coop. Enabling them to see each other is an important part of the integration process. The only reason I kept them far away is because when they were super tiny and vulnerable I wanted them near the house so that I could intervene if any predator messed with them. That's all well and good, but I should have moved them closer when I decided it was getting close to introduction time. 

• The vet recommended even putting them in a crate within the coop for a couple days to get them more used to each other. I certainly did not take this step.

• I could have trimmed the aggressive chicken's beaks before I introduced the new birds. This step may have saved a lot of bloodshed. Speaking of aggressive birds, here's a side note about Leghorns. Amelia, my Leghorn, is probably my favorite chicken. She's got personality out the wazoo, will jump on me to eat grapes, is silly and beautiful. However, those qualities come with some baggage. I believe she is the only bird who has eaten her own eggs, and she is definitely the bird who pecks at my other chickens' wounds from the rooster. I love her, but she's a giant pain in the ass. If I had to do it all over again I probably would not have paired a leghorn with the more chill birds I got. Or, even more likely I'd get all leghorns so that they'd be a fair match for each other. 

• The underlying theme in all these mistakes is that I rushed. Whoops! I got a big bitch slap in the face and this message: YOU CANNOT RUSH NATURE.  Yesterday I decided it was time to join their forces and just willy nilly threw them in there in the night. I should have taken full precautions.

I also found some tips online that I'll be sure to use when I attempt this again:

• Hang a half of cabbage in the run/coop so that they have to jump to peck at it. This serves as a  good distraction.
• Wrap some alfalfa hay and cabbage in chicken wire and hang from the roof of the run.

• Provide good hiding spots for the new chickens by adding branches, etc.
• Put hay or something else on the floor of the run. It gives them something to play with and "scratch". 

And honestly, after today, I might camp out next to the coop so that I'm right there when they wake up and can watch them. For now, everyone is getting at least another month to cool off and hopefully the injured chicken will pull through. And the portable coop is now sitting right next to the permanent one.