Reintegrating a Recovered Hen to a Small Flock:

Excellent article about reintegration. I'm wondering if returning TWO hens to the coop with their original seven flockmates will be any easier? I had to remove the hen on the bottom of the pecking order about three weeks ago because she was literally being pecked and starved to death. They wouldn't let her at the feeder and she was bleeding and nearly featherless. I have three different breeds so I took out another hen of her same breed to keep her company in the smaller cage. The injured one has grown most of her feathers back and is doing so much better. But I'm worried if I put them both back she'll just get shoved right back to the bottom of the pecking order. I'm going to take the advice from this article, but just wondered if anyone has an opinion on whether it will be any easier putting these two back in instead of just one being added back.

I also thank you for sharing Penny's story. It's encouraging that our Myrtle, desperately picked on by the other 4 hens, may be able to join the others again. We've allowed them to free range more, which is helping, and we'll add a new larger coop which I hope also helps. We have the bully blaster also, which is helpful, but I can't watcht them all the time. Thank you again. It was encouraging.

I don't own the hens (I just love them and bring fresh snacks each day). I hope the actual owners are reading fascinating and helpful articles like yours. The injured hen is segregated now but I'm hoping the bullying sisters will miss her so much that they'll welcome her back kindly. Thank you!

Thank you for this post. I'm currently working on reintegrating one of my hens, who was badly injured, back into the flock. She has a limp that I dont think will ever go away. I supervise her visits and spray the bullies (which is all of them right now), but she is allowed to dirt bath with them from time to time. The injury happened in August. I started letting her see the others safely from a separate enclosure a month later and just recently began supervised visits. She can get away from them, but her run is extremely clumsy which attracts those close by. She still sleeps in the garage at night. I hope that someday she can roost in the coop. I'm new to this and my flock is only 3.5 months old.

Thank you very much for sharing this experience!

I’m beginning this process after my girl, Dumpling, has been sick for about two weeks. (A long story for another post) She’s been eating and drinking on her own for about 3 days and has shown great improvement!

I‘ve brought her out for supervised visits and saw how viscous chickens can be! Needless to say, I don’t keep her out there but she’s feeling better and wants to be outside, but she’s not strong enough to keep the others off her. I would love to detail my experience, as you did, in hopes it may help give hope that there can be a happy ending!

I have already read through your experience, and Penny’s, several times and will again and again as I start to bring Dumpling out with the others.

Your experience and advice made me feel hopeful for her! Thank you again for sharing!

I just rescued a hen that was left when her owner moved.apparently the rest of her flock had died. She was alone for a couple of months, being fed by a neighbor. I just took her in and I'm in the process integrating her into my flock of four. I read numerous articles and I'm going slowly. your story gave me some new ideas. Also made me realize that this may take more than a couple of weeks. She is very sweet & docile & my dog loves her. The other hens, not so much!

Thank you for sharing
For some reason the original post dropped to one star after I was pretty sure I got 5 star!
Grrrrrrr....
Anyway, this article is terrific and is a nice view of reintegration.
We've had to do this several times now as we've had dog attack and hawk attack survivers, as well as a 5 week Cockerel being canabilized and living through the ordeal.
This article proves it's not just a lucky fluke to get injured members back into the flock. I heard over and over how it's impossible to do, but it's only challenging.
Thank you again for sharing!

Clear and easy to understand. Very well organized for a newbie to follow.

Well written story on what it took to reintroduce a single chicken to the flock.

I too was about to give up on reintroducing a sick hen to her original flock. I went out today with a squirt bottle. Even though they've never been squirted (yet - fingers crossed), it's almost as if the bullies knew what would happen. Will keep it up until she's finally back 100% with them. Still doesn't head to the coop in the evening. Hope that will happen as well, and soon.