2 year old flock rejecting hen

[Bluegrass447]

Greetings, I've been coming here a long time looking at threads, but couldn't find much specific to my issue. I have a flock of 7 hens and 1 rooster. Most of the girls are around the same size, except for three of them. The Rhode Island Red is the smallest, I have a black hen that's the second biggest, and the biggest hen is (I'm not sure of the bread) a large black and brown hen.

Anyway, they all came about together, have a fairly nice coop and run, and they go out free range during the nicer seasons. Right around the time it started getting cold this year, they have been acting strange. All of the hens ganged up on the biggest hen. Her left eye became quite swollen and the poor girl was in the run out in the coldest part right in the wind. I managed to get in there and pull her out. I put her in her own coop with a heat lamp. I then moved her coop to where they can all see each other. They act like neither side exists.

Skip forward a week, and I try to put her back in. Her eye had healed nicely and she was acting normal - the other hens are normal too, for the most part. I'll get to the rest later. Anyway they all seemed fine at first. Then the hens stared her down and started attacking her. They pecked at her eye again. Same one, I pulled her out and put her back in her own pen.

With dwindling temperatures(About to get -7 tonight, plus high wind chill), and feeling bad for the big hen, I don't know what to do. The folks down the road have a somewhat large flock, but I'm worried they will do the same to her and she wouldn't make it through the night. They are too. I don't know what to do with this hen at this point, she was my best egg layer. I don't know why the hens would do this to her either. Does anyone have any ideas?

Part 2: The RIR has always been a troublemaker, and she consistently pecks at the rooster's chest. It wasn't too bad for awhile, but now he's starting to bleed and his skin is bright red. This seems to have happened within the past couple days. He just takes it, acts normal. Can anything be done about this?

They have a good coop, kept them through a chilly winter last year, unfrozen water, and an usually clean coop. Maintenance has lacked the past two days due to sickness.

Anyway, sorry for the long post - any help is appreciated!

 

[JedJackson]

It's unusual for an established pecking order to be disturbed in this manner when no new chickens were added. Is the coop large enough for them all? Lack of space could cause problems like this. Are they getting enough food? Have there been any new and unusual stresses for the chickens or something new in their environment? These are things to look at before going any further.

If none of these things is the case then I really don't know what is going on. You say the RIR is aggressive but it sounds like your other hen also attacks the big hen. Since they are damaging that hen's eye I think you are wise to keep her separated. Perhaps you could put the rooster in with her to keep it from being harmed by the RIR, or maybe you could try putting the big hen in with the others and keeping the RIR separated, and see if that helps.