So my hens are over a year old now, and settled into their pecking order, but my head hen, Hot Lips, keeps on picking on my youngest (and coincidentally my hen on the very bottom of the pecking order), BJ. HL will jump on BJ's back, and grab onto her feathers so hard that they pull out. Bj now has a bit of a bald spot at the base of her tail feathers. HL only does this when they are out in the yard free-ranging. It's gotten so bad that my "hen-picked" (i'm going to a special hell for that one) BJ is spending time away from the rest of the flock as my other two hens are siding with the HBIC. They don't seem to care all that much when they are in the coop or in the huge run we just built for them, but I just worry about my little girl when they are out and she's all by herself away from the safety of the flock. Any suggestions?
