You can indeed put something on the hen\'s back to protect her while she regrows feathers--It\'s called a
\'chicken saddle\'. You can buy them at a few places on the web. There are some great, inexpensive ones posted at
http://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=115218&p=1. They saddles
REALLY help.
Here\'s some info I wrote in another post about
aggressiveness in roosters. I used the hobbling technique on our top show-quality roo who\'d been ganging up on a certain roo, and it permanently cured him so we were able to keep him.
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If the \"mean-ness\" is a rooster problem toward roosters, you can use tape or something to hobble his lower legs together with just enough length that he can walk but not jump up & spur or run really fast. When you put him down, the other chickens sense he is handicapped and generally dive at him
(**You MUST stay there to supervise and make sure things don\'t get TOO rough on him**). Less than a minute of this may get a rooster humbled enough that he never bullies again. Do
NOT let it go on longer than 1 minute.
I\'m not sure how this would work with correcting aggression toward hens. I imagine you\'d be likely to need more than 1 min of hobbling because they\'d probably not be as driven to attack him??? I would DEFINITELY separate the other roo while putting the hobbled roo with the hens--otherwise the other roo would take the opportunity to attack him & the hens wouldn\'t even be part of the interaction.
It can take rooster that was hobbled 2-3 weeks to feel confident enough to hang out comfortably with the others again.
BE CAREFUL WITH THIS TECHNIQUE! Even a little too much time at other chickens\' mercy can be very detrimental to thrashee\'s self-confidence. I think it would be better to do too short of a hobbling session, if in doubt, and then do a second session if needed a couple weeks later.
