Pullet won't come down from roost

[GiddyUpGo]

One of our pullets was bullied severely by another hen, the bully is a year old and the pullet is just around the age where she'll be starting to lay any day now. I put pinless peepers on the bully but she's still very aggressive towards her victim, though I don't think she's very effective since she can't really pursue and corner the way she has been doing. Still, the pullet is terrified of her and has discovered that if she stays up on the roost all day, the bully leaves her alone.

The other chickens are fine with her. They do peck her but it's just the typical one-off "I'm the boss" sort of peck, nothing overtly aggressive. Still, even when I move the bully out of the pen entirely, the pullet is so traumatized she won't come down. I'm seriously afraid at this point that she's going to start laying eggs from the roost.

She's got food and water up there and maybe that's my mistake ... no reason to come down and brave life in the population, so she doesn't. I took the food down this morning and left the water up. I figure I'll put the food back in the evening so the poor thing doesn't starve, but in the meantime, any ideas for coaxing her down would be appreciated.

 

[RojoMarz]

How about chicken jail for a day or two for the bully. Then reintroduce her to the flock.

 

[aart]

This might help:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/chicken-bully-chicken-victim-a-two-sided-issue.73923/

 

[3KillerBs]

Do you have plenty of "clutter" in your chickens' environment to give birds plenty of ways to get away from each other?

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/a-cluttered-run.1323792/

 

[GiddyUpGo]

Do you have plenty of "clutter" in your chickens' environment to give birds plenty of ways to get away from each other?

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/a-cluttered-run.1323792/

There are plenty of places to run to but in most of them it's possible for an aggressive bird to corner a more timid one. There are also two spots higher up in the corners of the coop that she can jump up on, where the other chickens can't get to her at all. This is where she goes at night -- it's easy to jump to from the roost. The bully is now in chicken jail during the day. There was another chicken we put peepers on because she's moderately more aggressive than the others, and it seems to have completely stopped any pecking from her. The rest are just doing the normal warning pecks chickens always do to each other, nothing violent or really all that threatening, but this poor pullet flees in terror whenever one of them approaches her, and then she's right back up on the roost again.

 

[GiddyUpGo]

This might help:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/chicken-bully-chicken-victim-a-two-sided-issue.73923/

If she had been well-integrated into the flock before this happened I think it might be worth trying, but because she's been just recently accepted by most of the other chickens I'm afraid that isolating her will just restart the whole battle for the pecking order.

 

[aart]

If she had been well-integrated into the flock before this happened I think it might be worth trying, but because she's been just recently accepted by most of the other chickens I'm afraid that isolating her will just restart the whole battle for the pecking order.

Well, just keep it in mind.

 

[3KillerBs]

There are plenty of places to run to but in most of them it's possible for an aggressive bird to corner a more timid one.

Can you rearrange so that it's impossible for one bird to corner another?

That's what I do for my chicks during integration -- make a lot of tunnel-like places where a chick can get in one end and out the other and hide out of sight.

 

[rosemarythyme]

Can you rearrange so that it's impossible for one bird to corner another?

That's what I do for my chicks during integration -- make a lot of tunnel-like places where a chick can get in one end and out the other and hide out of sight.

x2, with all clutter the aim is to not only break line of sight, but to provide obvious escape routes. That means if one exit is blocked, another should be available for use. For that reason almost none of my clutter is up against walls, as that usually creates an unintended dead end.

 

[3KillerBs]

x2, with all clutter the aim is to not only break line of sight, but to provide obvious escape routes. That means if one exit is blocked, another should be available for use. For that reason almost none of my clutter is up against walls, as that usually creates an unintended dead end.

I have a lot of things leaned against walls to create tunnels.