bad hen pecking

[jimgunn]

We have a flock of 1 rooster, 8 hens and 7 chicks. The other day I found one of the hens sitting in a corner in the hen house with bloody feathers. I picked her up and found that the entire back of her head had been pecked open. I cleaned her and kept her in a separate box. Her head scabbed over in a few days so I thought I would let her out and keep an eye on her to see what happened. The rooster made a bee line for her and started pecking her head. She laid flat on the ground yet the rooster continued to peck her so I rescued her. I have never seen him mate with this hen and since she has been kept separate I have not found a single egg from her and we are still getting the same daily amount of eggs which says she hasn't been laying. Could this be the reason for the pecking? If not is there anyway that i can stop the rooster from pecking her? Any advice appreciated. Thanks.

 

[Smoochie]

I would isolate her until she is fully healed with no scabs. if he did it again I would not keep him or rehome her.

 

[sumi]

X2 Except I would rehome the rooster. A rooster should look after his hens, not beat them up.

 

[jimgunn]

Thanks for the advice. I tried to let her out and chase off the rooster if he attacked her and hope he would eventually get the message but one of the other hens started to attack her as well so I have re-homed her. The rooster looks after all the other hens fine. He makes sure they do not stray too far and alarms them all to predators, its just something about that hen.

 

[jimgunn]

update on the hen. Her head has almost completely healed over but the rooster at her new home has also been attacking her so we have got her back. Any advice?

 

[my sunwolf]

As a last-ditch sort of thing, you could try to re-shuffle the pecking order among the hens. This involves separating a few of the more dominant hens (and maybe the roo), allowing the beat-up hen to get used to the coop as HER home, and then reintroducing the dominant members after a day or so. Unfortunately, this has never worked well for me, as my hens could never forget the dominant hen even after almost a week of separation. Others on BYC have tried this method and have had positive results, so maybe it's worth a try.

 

[jimgunn]

Sound like a good plan but i wouldn't have anywhere to put them. She used to get on with all the others and we've had this flock for almost 6 months. Its only now that they have turned against her.

 

[sumi]

I went to a petshop here in Ireland recently and found amongst their poultry goodies a spray called "Antipek" or something along those lines. They say if you spray it on your chickens or mist it over your chicks the other chickens won't peck them. I haven't needed or used it yet (touching wood here), but it sounds like a good product that may help in situations like yours. Have you got anything like that available by you?

 

[jimgunn]

In fact I did see a product like that online but that was after I had given the hen a new home, now you've mentioned it I will look into it. Thank you.