Several hens picking on smallest hen to the point of injury - Story Inside, Please Help?

Hi everyone.

I currently own 6 chickens: 2 Rhode Island Reds (Holly and Dolly), 2 Plymouth Rocks (Shirley and Ducky), 1 White Leghorn (Ezzy), and 1 that I believe is an Orpington (Amelia). I've raised them all since they were 6 days old, so they have grown up together. They are currently about 3 years old.

The problem is, lately Amelia has been getting ganged up on. She's the smallest of the hens, and although several of the chickens have been picked on before, this time it's pretty bad.

I had to remove her from the coop/run area and put her in a separate pen for a while so that she could heal, because we didn't have any luck just spraying the antiseptic spray/purple-dye on her and putting Vicks around the hurt area. Whoever the chicken that picked on her was, they ripped a big chunk of skin off of her head/neck area. It was bleeding pretty badly and she was in pretty bad shape. I sprayed some of the purple-dye antiseptic on her, and let her stay in the other pen for a few days while she healed.

She healed up pretty well, and her feathers are starting to come back in on the hurt area. So I sprayed some more spray on her, put more Vicks on her, and let her into the coop. It was only her and one other chicken in there (one of the least aggressive ones) and still within an hour or so - the other chicken had her bleeding again. She was so scared that when I rushed out and opened the door to save her, she flew right into my arms.

So, I now have the other chickens separated into 2 separate pens, and she's currently the only one in the coop/run. I thought that maybe if she gets established in there, that the next time I try to introduce a different chicken, they will be more wary because it's her territory?

I also trimmed the beaks of the more aggressive hens (and the one I saw hurting her), so hopefully they won't be able to hurt her as easily if it happens again. I'm also considering trimming the primary flying feathers of the more aggressive hens, so that Amelia will have more of an advantage if she needs to get away quickly.

Is there anything else I could be doing, any suggestions?

How big is your coop and run?

Hmmm good luck with this I think the RIR and the Leg horns are not the nicest breeds IMO
just from my personal experience with the breeds. As far as her being Queen of the coop EVERY TIME EVEN ONE CHICKEN IS INTRODUCED INTO A COOP OR FLOCK THE PECKING ORDER STARTS OVER SO THERE IS NO DOUBT WHO IS IN CHARGE. If it were me and Amelia was one of my favs I would keep her separate and try to find her a friend of her own breed. If not a favorite I would rehome her.

Just my opinion Good luck with this I hope someone will give you the RIGHT answer for your flock.

I'm not sure of the exact measurements, I'll try to find the blueprints. Here are a few pictures that I just took though, if it helps at all.

I agree, it does seem to be that the Leghorn and the RIR's are the most aggressive ones. The rocks have wonderful dispositions though, same as Amelia.

As you said, every time a chicken is introduced, the pecking order will begin again. I'm hoping that by introducing the sweetest chickens first to Amelia, they will have a chance to bond and hopefully won't end up low on the totem pole again. Plus, I did trim the beaks of the RIR's and Leghorn (and will clip their wings too, if needed), so that may be helpful when I introduce them in a few days (one by one).

Amelia gets along well with the Rocks, so it's not like she is all alone. Giving her or any of the others away isn't an option, so I'm trying to make sure that nobody gets seriously injured again. Thanks for your advice though.

junebuggena said:

How big is your coop and run?

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What a great idea FIGURE OUT and SOLVE the problem!
Guess I had too many girls in middle school.

what are they squabbling about.
Is she ill
is there enough sq ft for all to be happy
is there a trigger food dish spot on roost shady place
is SHE starting the problem ... I have seen that alot in humans and animals the weaker one picks a fight and the stronger one gets pegged as a bully.

You may need to increase their space
recomended bare min is
4 sq ft inside coop per Chicken
10 sq ft of space per bird in run
coop would need to have 36 sq ft of floor space that is a 6 ft by 4 ft coop
and 60 sq ft of run space 6 ft by 10ft run.

tjo804 said:

What a great idea FIGURE OUT and SOLVE the problem!

Guess I had too many girls in middle school.

what are they squabbling about.
Is she ill
is there enough sq ft for all to be happy
is there a trigger food dish spot on roost shady place
is SHE starting the problem ... I have seen that alot in humans and animals the weaker one picks a fight and the stronger one gets pegged as a bully.

Click to expand...

Amelia doesn't appear to be ill, she's been eating and drinking well. She hasn't shown any abnormal behaviors, she just seems a bit more skittish due to being picked on.
Their space may be a bit small, so we try to combat that with hanging cabbage and a flock block. We also put grass clippings and scratch in the run, to try and limit boredom.
We have a food dish outside the run in a less sunny place, and 2 food dishes inside the coop so that is in the shade.
She doesn't appear to be instigating the problem from what I can see, it just seems to be that the more aggressive ones pick on her.
Do you think that because their beaks have been trimmed, things may get better?

Hen peepers will help with the problem. Google hen peepers, I use them.