Bullied hen - help

[Diana57]

I have recently rehomed 5 ex bats, having been down to a single hen from my previous flock. Things have gone reasonably well with the old hen and four of the new hens, however, the smallest newest hen "Little One", is being horribly bullied now by more or less all of the hens. I tried separating her by putting her into a dog crate next to the run, but now she scrambles out of the hen house in the morning and dives for the door to get to me in order to escape. Today I decided instead to try taking out the two biggest culprits and separate them, leaving Little One to cope with the more passive hens. She has spent most of the day in the hen house or at the hen house door. On the few times she has ventured down one of the previously more passive hens (as I thought) was very aggressive towards her. Little One tends to crouch down under the water or the food holders to try to escape from the pecking. At one point today when I went to check on them she literally threw herself at me trying to get out. She is such a sweet timid little thing but its horrible to watch. I should say that her feathers are growing back quite well since I got her and she is laying. I've tried the anti-pecking spray but that has had no effect. Any ideas?

 

[keesmom]

What are the dimensions of your coop and run?

 

[Diana57]

It is an Omlet Eglu as this one: https://www.omlet.co.uk/shop/chicken_keeping/eglu_cube/
The run is 3m long

 

[keesmom]

That's a small coop for 6 LF hens no matter what the company claims. I wouldn't have more than 2 or 3 in that space. There is no room for lower ranking hens to get away.

 

[Hen Pen Jem]

Keesmom makes an excellent point! Space, space, space...that is so essential when keeping chickens. I just merged two flocks on Sunday night. I installed extra perches in the main coop, where I placed the 5 new hens. Because I know how aggressive my alpha hen (a black ameraucana) can be - I decided to Summer the new pullets in a separate pen/coop to make sure they were healthy and give them time to mature, and increase in weight. The smallest hen will usually get bullied and pecked. If you don't have a rooster to help keep the peace, you will have be it! They are working out the pecking order, which can take a couple days or weeks. Make sure that food and water is plentiful and not centralized in one spot. Chickens need options, places in the pen they can escape to, like outside perches, ramps to elevated platforms, outside nest boxes, etc.
If "Little One" is growing her feathers back and able to lay, she will probably be ok. Just be vigilant that the other hens are not drawing blood!
I also like to play soft music for them and provide extra scratch with mealworms mid-morning, fresh greens and thinly sliced apples or grapes, tomato at noon. And if they are doing ok, maybe a snack of cooked grains: wheat berries, oat groats, brown rice, corn (frozen), and some scrambled egg, in the late afternoon. The hens will be distracted and happy to get such great yummies! They may associate all the goodies with the addition of the newbie too! Happy hens, are peaceful hens.