I have 4 chickens- 2 Barred Plymouth Rock Chickens, 1 New Hampshire, and 1 Easter Egger. It was a rough year. One day we went to let the chickens out of the coop in the morning and Easter Egger was stuck in a soccer net. She had been there all night and something had pecked or eaten the top of her head off. She was barely alive. She was lethargic and didn't move when I brought her inside to examine the damage and clean the wound.
I was so sad for her. She had always been a very proud chick and now she simply looked like a zombie and didn't have energy to eat. I nursed her for 1 wk. She slept next to my bed in a container. She was showing improvement and I let her outside with the others. Her buddy, one of the Plymouth Rock Chickens that had been a chick with her, was her buddy. She stayed right next to her. They were a little bullied by the two other chickens and the New Hampshire or Rosie was the OG of all the chickens. She had lived through two Raccoon raids. She was a survivor and lived alone in the back yard until I finally replaced the martyr chickens. She was the top of the pecking order.
When the other Barred Plymouth Rock or Peppa, wanted to be the top of the pecking order. She started working her way up. Rosie held her ground and the other Barred Plymouth and Easter Egger were at Peppa's mercy. They watched their back and let Peppa eat first. Even though Rosie was the OG, she let Peppa think she was the top. This relieved Rosie of the work of chasing off the others when she ate. Rosie was a genius. Peppa took on all the work of keeping everyone in line and the newest baby chicks were growing now.
The other Barred Plymouth Rock was named Rex because he outgrew Peppa and her feet were ginormous like a T-rex. And Eater Egger tried to remain best buds with Rex. Until one day the Pecking order began to change. Rex started trying to take Peppa's place. And Rex was pecking at Easter Egger. Eater Egger had developed the name Zombie chicken at this point because of how her head healed and the trauma of having her head pecked or bitten off. Easter Egger as all alone. The other chickens were no longer allowing Zombie to eat with them or sleep with them. Before when she was healing, she slept with Rosie and Rex, but now she was on her own. It was time for Zombie to lay eggs but she knew the other chickens wouldn't let her lay in the coop. She had to find a place to lay her beautiful light green eggs. The other chickens almost seemed to be jealous of Zombie because of her beautiful eggs.
The day came when they had to say in the coop for a week because the neighbor was getting a fence. This was especially hard for Zombie because Peppa and Rex were incessant with their pecking on Zombie.
Zombie succumbed to staying or roosting all day in the coop up high. She did dare challenge Peppa or Rex. And Roxie, the OG, was always in her same spot- in the coop facing the lawnmower in the shed. Peppa and Rex had some gruesome battles for the roosting spot up high. Rex was so chubby, that one night Rex and Peppa were finally roosting after battling for the spot and KERPLUNK, the roosting shelf fell and they didn't have anywhere to roost except with Zombie up high or Rosie in the Shed. Rosie held her position as top of the pecking order and Zombie did get challenged. Zombie is very good at ignoring the other chickens and scooting over and not letting them bother her. She will keep to herself, watch her P's and Q's and let them always eat first. The one problem that Zombie had was that she was laying but didn't want to lay in their coop. She had to. And one day she did lay an egg, in the shed. Not in the coop. I picked the egg up and put it in the coop. When I came back the next day the chickens had pushed her light green egg out of the pile of eggs. I put it back. The next day, same thing. They pushed her egg out of the pile. Ugh. They were brutal with their pecking order. The following week the fence was done and the chickens were happy to be free ranging in the back yard.
One day I was cleaning the yard and came across the pine tree scraps and a nest full of - none else - but light green eggs. Zombie chicken was laying. I had started to wonder if she was ever going to lay because of all her trauma. But she had. And she had a brilliant place among the pine trees. She had refused to lay in the coop and I had only found the 1 egg because she was locked in the coop. Now I knew what she had been doing. Laying her eggs in her hidden nest. I had to move her nest because I was cleaning but I decided to make her a coop out of a wooden crate and put pine tree scraps over it and around it. She hasn’t used the home-made coop. And I did take all her eggs- 7 of them and left one. And then 3 days later I saw Zombie come out of the coop in the morning and head straight to the North side of the yard. She carefully waddled under some Lilac bushes and I wondered...did she have a new nest? Yes! 8 more eggs were in a carefully crafted pine bed nest. She had been laying all her eggs in her own nest. She is just a wonderful resilient chicken. She may not be liked by all the others, and she may be the bottom of the pecking order. But she keeps laying and playing in my back yard. Bless her Chicken Heart. Oh, and we changed her name to Ralph so the stigma of Zombie will leave her.