Advice needed for bullied chicken and choosy rooster

[henofthewood]

I need some advice, and soon! I have eight chickens that have been together for a couple of years now with no problems. I came home yesterday to find that one of them appears to have been bullied by another and may have injured her leg (she's still getting around but only if she has to). There's no blood but a lot of feathers in the coop, both from the victim as well as the bully. As this seems to have come out of the blue, I'm not sure what to do. Normally, I would separate her for a bit, but that brings me to my second issue.

I have a second coop that we built this year as temporary accommodations for eight chicks new this April. Seven are pullets (two speckled sussex, two barred rocks, one buff orpington, one americauna, and one silver laced wyandotte), but one turned out to be a rooster (buff orpington). They were getting along fine, but one day I found the americauna badly bullied and quite bloody. I pulled her from the flock and she's been on her own for the last three weeks while she heals. In the meantime, the rooster has hit puberty and has eyes only for the BO pullet. She was running from him trying to stay away but he'd chase her all day long. She was so stressed, I finally pulled her from the flock as well and put her in with the americauna (who's quite happy for the company). My hope was that he'd turn to the other pullets so when she went back he wouldn't be only interested in her. No such luck so far. Is this normal behavior? Are roosters generally attracted only to their own breed?

Now I'm not sure what to do. I have 16 chickens in three different pens. I really don't want to create a fourth. I could put the injured older chicken in with the two younger pullets, but I don't want strife there either since they've never been together. Any advice would be appreciated!

 

[Judy]

Roos do tend to have favorites, but usually more than one. I don't think it has much if anything to do with breed.

Among the hens, the trick is going to be to figure out who is the ringleader bully and separate that one for a week or more. When returned, she should be lower or at the bottom of the pecking order.