Bullied hen

[Chick-Inn-Coop]

Hey Everyone,
I have 9 hens in my flock, no roosters. 4 EE & 5 Production Reds, all about 10 months old. I noticed about a month ago that 2 of the reds were being picked on. Blood was being drawn so I isolated them both in a separate coop to recover. All was well until last week when we hit a cold snap. My secondary coop isn't heated but the main coop is, and the 2 were recovering nicely so I put them all back in together to avoid frostbite.
1 of the reds integrated in just fine, but the other (smallest in the flock and also the friendliest) clearly has a target on her back. Every other hen pecks at her & charges at her and she's now missing a good chunk of neck feathers. If it was 1 bully I could remove the culprit, but what do I do when every other hen is pecking at her? She now spends most of her time solo, roosting indoors while everyone else is outside. She does eat and drink, but clearly skittish amongst the group and doesn't trust any of them.

The hens are penned, their indoor coop area is 4x8, their outdoor space is 8x20. I can't free range them due to excessive predators in the area.

Thanks for any ideas!

 

[azygous]

Bullying is rarely the fault of a single bully. It actually usually is perpetuated by the victim. Have you noticed kids ganging up on a small, timid child? The timidity of the child is often what triggers the bullies. So it is with chickens. Here's what I wrote about it with a plan to deal with it, turning the victim into a self confident chicken so the bullying stops. https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/chicken-bully-chicken-victim-a-two-sided-issue.73923/

 

[aart]

Coop is tight space, you don't need heat at your temps.
Is your run weather 'proof' (solid roof and wind blocked walls)?
Pics would help here.

 

[Chick-Inn-Coop]

Coop is tight space, you don't need heat at your temps.
Is your run weather 'proof' (solid roof and wind blocked walls)?
Pics would help here.

I'm further East from the actual city of Vancouver, and our temps right now are dipping to -20C/-4F. We included heat in the main coop because these temps, while rare, do happen every few years, and this also gives me the flexibility to raise chicks in there during spring.

The main coop is solid but not insulated, with a shingled roof and 4 solid sides.
The secondary coop (isolation coop) is 4x8, hard covered roof & enclosed on 3 sides with a transparent plastic poly wrap.

The main coop is indeed a tight space, but with the predators out here we have to enclose everything in hardware cloth. We have bears, cougars, coyotes, minks and hawks/eagles that are abundant and will take out a flock (in fact, i tried free ranging these guys with limited supervision and on day 3 I already had a hawk on them)

 

[Chick-Inn-Coop]

Bullying is rarely the fault of a single bully. It actually usually is perpetuated by the victim. Have you noticed kids ganging up on a small, timid child? The timidity of the child is often what triggers the bullies. So it is with chickens. Here's what I wrote about it with a plan to deal with it, turning the victim into a self confident chicken so the bullying stops. https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/chicken-bully-chicken-victim-a-two-sided-issue.73923/

This is fantastic, thank you. I'll give it a shot.
While observing them, I was starting to think that her behaviors are making the issue worse. Hopefully this will help.

 

[Chick-Inn-Coop]

Replying back to @azygous and any other readers who have the same issue.
This is already working really well. I get out when daylight breaks to remove my bullied hen and I put her back in just as the rest of the flock goes to roost at night. She's already showing more confidence around them and i'll keep it up long enough for her feathers to come back in.
A huge thank you!