Hen pecking another DURING laying?

[texasmomma]

We were recently given 5 hens and a rooster by our neighbor. She said the chickens are 5 years old. The first egg came a week after we got them. The rooster is quite aggressive and the bottom 3 hens have bare backs. One came with it and the other two got it since they came to us. Saturday, we got a second egg. This one looked better than the first and wasn't all wrinkly on the outside. The rooster also left on Saturday and is now living with a friend.

Today, the number 4 chicken was pecking mercilessly at the neck if the number 3 chicken. In the roost. I had to bang a stick against the fence in order to keep her away from the hen in the nest. The hen in the nest layed her egg and the hen that was pecking at her hasn't looked twice at her since?

Is this normal?

They are now getting good feed with calcium and I am throwing them scraps. These chickens have pecked until there was blood but neither of these two were the ones being pecked. We are very new to this, just trying to figure out what is normal and what is not.

 

[silkiechicken]

Do they have enough space to get away from each other. A general guideline is 4 sq feet each inside, and 10 sq feet each outside if they must be penned. Chickens tend to go after blood if they can see it though, so may try to cover any bloody bits with bluekote. 5 years old is pretty "old" for chickens to be productive.

 

[texasmomma]

They have 100 square feet for the 5 of them and we let them forage some during the day. We just got them, so don't have a good run for them yet. Soon, though. I think that the one that was hurting the layer was in some sort of weird mood that day. She acted like she layed an egg, looked for the egg behind her, even, and never did lay.

She hasn't been crazy like that since, that I have seen.

There is a lot less pecking now that the rooster is gone. They still peck some, but not to blood. They are older, and were given to us, so we are seeing how things go before making any permanent changes. I think we have one that lays almost every day now. There was another egg layed on Saturday, but it looked slightly different.

Thanks for the response. This was just way out of character for this hen and almost maniacal.