Mean Girls

Our flock is growing up nicely.  I think they get prettier every day.  We lost “Lucky” the chicken that was attacked by Lena.  She had lasted nearly 2 weeks after the attack, was obviously eating and drinking.  Her head twitch left her and she started behaving normally, minus the eye she lost.  We started talking about reintroducing her to the flock, and the next thing we knew, we found her dead in her box.

Which brings our flock down to 18.  One was lost in the woods and never returned, (a black one) and then Lucky.  A few chickens have not returned from the woods for even a day or two since then, but they have always come back.  We haven’t had one unaccounted for in a few weeks now.  They have their routine now, and I don’t worry about them as much.  I know the bushes they like to hide in, and they are starting to spread over the yard more, which is good.

There is one problem which needs to be dealt with.  You might remember we exchanged some chickens with our friend, Conrad?  He took the roosters off our hands, and gave us 4 young hens.  2 of them had evidence of “bullying” from his coop as we could tell from the missing feathers on their necks.  One of them seems to be doing very well, and has regrown her neck feathers.  The other one is doing very badly, and is losing more neck feathers every day.  It’s gotten to the point where she will sometimes bleed.

The other birds that came from Conrad’s flock have seemed to acclimate fairly well, but this one seems to only be getting worse.  

She is constantly being put down and walked over and pecked by our the other birds.

We have named her “Princess” in order to help raise her self esteem.

I’ve even seen Selina, our mini-chicken who had pasty-butt in the beginning walk all over Princess.  See, here’s Selina next to another of her same breed.  She’s growing fine now, but is still behind the other birds.

I won’t show you a picture of Princess in case some of you are squimish around wounds.  We’ve put an old dog crate in the coop and have separated her from the rest of the birds so that she can have a chance for her pecked at neck to heal.  Unfortunately, she’s started scratching her wound often and comes out of the crate worse off looking than going in.

Knut and I have started to pour hydrogen peroxide over her neck every day, in order to promote healing.  If we can at least get the healing started, I’ve read in my chicken book that it’s a good idea to rub vinegar over her neck before she in reintroduced into the flock.  That way if one of the other birds tries to peck at her, they’ll get a beak full of yuckiness.  It puts an end to it pretty quick.

However, I can’t seem to stop her from scratching.  I’ve looked for mites or some other bug that may be causing the scratching but can find none.  I really think it’s just itchy like healing wounds can often get.  If any of you chicken experts has any idea how to stop her from scratching her sometimes bloody neck, I’d sure like some advice. It’s looking worse by the day, not better.  We’re trying to be vigilant.

Until then, we’ll keep her separate, and use hydrogen peroxide daily and hope for it to start healing on its own.  I can’t fathom any sort of bandage that wouldn’t interfere with her eating and drinking.  Knut jokingly asked if they made chicken cones like dog cones.  I’m not sure how that would work.  Well, at least the chicken cones that I know of are used for an entirely different purpose…butchering.

She’s a pill to try and catch.  She wasn’t handled over at Conrads as much as we handled our chicks.  His chicks aren’t by his house and he had almost 3 times as many birds to hold, and less hands to hold them.  Our chicks were handled by little kid hands multiple times a day and still are.  Knut and I working together will chase Princess for a good 10 minutes before she’s caught.  We’re slowly getting better at catching her.

They’re not all mean to her, though.  The one that came with missing feathers along with Princess, except her neck feathers have re-grown seems to be her close friend.  I’ve seen this chicken shield Princess from violent pecks of the other girls.  She’ll extend out her wing over Princess’ neck, and pull her in close.  I’ve never seen anything like this, but it’s fascinating to watch.

Amara will run towards me when she sees me coming now.  One of the other Amaracaunda’s is right behind her.  I need a name for that 2nd in command girl.  She’s always anxious to see if I have a treat.  I’ve been saving the mini strawberries for the chickens  (the ones in the patch that are so small they’re hardly worth taking the leaves off).  They go bonkers over them.

I’ve also been giving them our excess of garden lettuce as well, and sweeping up the leftover pieces of corn in the garage from where Knut used to store the “fuel” for our corn stove last winter.  I’ve been reading that diversions like this can distract the birds from some bullying…so far no luck.  They like the treats, though!

One of the big hamburgs (the yellowish white ones) picks on Princess the most.  I’ve named her Ursula.  I need a name for Princess’ protector and friend, though.  Still working on that. 

So those keeping track of named chickens:
Selina (mini chicken with pasty butt as a chick.  Now fine, but small.)
Amara (the golden Amaracauna chicken.  By far the most friendly and certainly runs the coop.)
Lucky (bird attacked by Lena, and later died…so we probably named her wrong.)
Princess (bird with missing feathers on her neck and constantly bullied)
Ursula (Princess’ biggest bully.)