One of my hens is getting beat up on by the rest of the flock.

[70monte]

I have five RIR's, one Rooster and four hens. I bought all of these, along with two hens that died since then, almost two years ago when they were all about seven months old. Recently one of the hens is getting picked on by the others. She has been staying in the coop on the roost for the past few days while the others are outside. She also has lost a majority of her feathers which I assume is from the rooster and the other hens. This hen has been the rooster's favorite one.

This afternoon I took her down off the roost and put her outside and when I put her down and she started to run off toward the other chickens, they all attacked her, including the rooster. They were pecking her on the head and back and drew blood. I chased them off and finally caught her.

I fixed up my old coop for her to stay in and have taken her away from the rest of the flock for the time being.

What would cause the rest of the flock to turn on her like this? Am I going to have to keep her away from the rest of the flock permanantly? What should I do? Any suggestions are welcome.

Wayne

 

[ElizabethH]

I know that a lot of the time if chickens see a wound or a bald spot they will always peck at it like they are trying to get it off of the chicken. I would wait until she was healed, with new feathers before putting her back with them.
I hope she does well!

 

[ams4776]

Ive seen other people post that it could mean something wrong with her....sick or something. Keep her seperated and a close eye on her. Good luckluck

 

[bburn]

Keeping her separate until she heals is really important....let her grow her feathers back too.

Then you are looking at intergration once again. Plus, you really need a few more hens for that rooster. They say one rooster for 8-10 hens. So, if you can find some hens or even pullets the same size, give them some time with the beat up girl.....after quarantine. (I know, but it is protection for all of them, your old ones and your new ones). Then you can intergrate them and the old hens won't remember the beat up girl.

I am in the process of moving mine all around. Got rid of my very mean BR roo. He only had five girls and one was killed by a racoon. The same racoon got my LF cochin hen and that left the cochin rooster and one hen. That is a bad deal. This hen is getting bald! So my plan in to intergrate the four BR with the two cochins.

To do it I am going to displace the four girls first and let the two cochins have the coop and run for three or four days. Then I am going to put the two BR girls back in but sectioned off from the other two. Then if things look good I am going to take the fence down and let them all be together. The two cochins are in the tractor for now. This is the only way that makes sense to me on putting them together without too much fuss.....but there will still be the pecking order thing.

Will be needing the tractor in three more weeks to put my chicks in so I have to get moving on this.

Read everything you can find in intergration on her.....it will help you even if you don't get any more hens.

 

[70monte]

Thanks for the replies so far. She doesn't really act sick, just kind of shell shocked. My old coop is roughly 5'x5' with about a 5'x5' attached run. I originally put her in the run part while I was putting in the pine chips in the coop. I had to eventually chase her into the coop. When she got inside she went to the food and started eating as well as drinking. She then got up on the roost so I don't really think she is sick. I forgot to mention she is smaller than the rest of the hens. She seems smaller than she used to but its probably from the other hens not letting her eat though she has been staying in the coop by herself where the food is. She has probably been to scared to come down off the roost. Here are a few pictures of my old coop she is staying in.

Wayne

 

[Rustywreck]

I'm sure this is not something you want to hear, but I've had 3 hens die and each one of them was picked on severely by the others prior to her death. I know it was not the other hens that killed them. They were in the same age range as you mentioned.
The pattern was the same with all three: All the hens picked on the one. After a time, the victim became less active, seemed to stop eating, then eventually died. Nothing I did made any difference (separating, etc.).
Maybe it was all a coincidence for my chickens and you won't have the same outcome. I hope you don't.

 

[70monte]

It is possible she may die but I will just have to wait and see. Seperating her was the only option for right now because I'm not going to watch her get beat up by the rest of the flock. I'm probably going to get rid of them all soon anyway so that I can get a new bunch in. They are all about 2 1/2 years old and egg production is not very good anymore. Thanks again for the advice.

Wayne

 

[NottinghamChicks]

It's possible she will have to be kept seperate from now on. They sound mean

I would go and get he two or three chicks to place in with her. Let them interact through a divider first to see how she will rect but chances are she will be fine with them. She will probably enjoy being a momma. It's impossible to tell what the issue could be without witnessing it firsthand so sorry I have no real answer as to the treatment of your poor hen.

 

[valerie0001]

I just had this problem a few weeks ago, and again a week ago. Within a two week period I lost 1 chicken and keeping my guard up I discovered my Black Australop "Lucky" attempting to kill my other younger black australop "Charm". I removed Charm from the chicken run and left her outside of the run to do as she pleased. Charm has the backyard and our house at her disposal. During this one week period, Charm has been doing great. She stays outside during the day, mainly around the chicken run but comes in at night and sleeps on the couch with the Beagle, yes, our bird eating dog. After 5 days Charm has begun laying again; she laid her 1st egg since the incident, on our couch. We actually got to see a chicken lay an egg, very exciting! We may keep this up only because, and this may seem the strangest thing ever, but Charm does go outside to excrete. We bring her in at night and put her out with the dogs in the morning and she maintains her hygiene during that time. I am sure she knows that I saved her life.

My chicken stock consists of 1 Black Australop 3 yrs, 2 White Rocks 3yrs, was 4 now 3 Rhode Island Reds 2 yrs, and 1 Black Australop 2 yrs. The first 3 we had since they were just born. The remainder I acquired last year at 1 year old. All but 2 of my chickens are very bold, and there is definitely the pecking order by the 3 originals with Lucky being at the top. My RIR that I lost and Charm were always the timid, shy hens. I do still see my White Rocks getting after the RIRs, but those girls came with a tough and bold personality to them.

Does anyone know about when Black Austalops and White Rocks stop laying due to age?

 

[70monte]

I still have the hen seperated and she seems to be doing better. Her feathers are growing back in and she is more active, scratching around in little attached pen quite a bit. I still have not decided if or when I will try to reintroduce her back into the flock. I'm still debating on getting a few chicks to put in with her. If she didn't take to them, she would have to go back with the others since I don't have any other place to keep chicks.

Wayne