Bully hens

[we<3eggsnaz]

I have 4 hens, 2 of them are leghorns and are bullying another one (I'm not sure what breed she is, I'm new, but she's dark brown and black) she is missing a bunch of feathers on her back and this morning we noticed a couple spots that are bleeding. What can we do to help her?

 

[dandelionheart]

Since 50% of your hens are the offenders... I'd remove the worst one. And people on here have talked about Blu-kote (or something like that) to put on the pecked area. I guess it tastes bad and they will stop pecking.

But DON'T take away the victim, that just seems to make it worst. I'd start with two days away - may be enough to reestablish the pecking order with the bully at the bottom.

 

[jojo54]

Don't have an answer for your situation as mine was different. Lulu was lame and a runt as well as being picked on. Now she is a spoiled part time house chicken who run the run of the whole yard minus the chicken run. Worked out well for us because I love spoiling my little girl.

Oh BTW

Welcome to BYC.

 

[Chick CJ]

I agree, take the worst offender away for a couple of days. Just a cage with food and water in it. This should mix up the pecking order some. The bloody/red spot will stand out to your other chickens and they will continue to peck at it. The blue kote covers it, and tastes really bad. Be careful if/when you apply it, other posters have shared their experiences of the chicken shaking it off and onto them and I hear it is just awful trying to get it off of you!!
CJ

 

[Pinky]

Are you sure the ones picking on your dark brown and black chicken are not roosters? Some hens loose feathers on their backs when roosters over mate them.

 

[Gypsy07]

I don't know if it's available where you are (I'm in the UK) but I had great results with a really stinky anti-pecking spray called Ukadex. It's so vile it almost made me puke each time I sprayed it but it did the job almost instantly. I would remove the worst bully from the coop and put the other one behind wire mesh so she's confined to a corner of the coop. I would carefully wash and dry the pecked bird so that any scent or colour of blood is removed, and then return her to the coop. I'd keep the bullies away/confined for a couple of days.Then before you put them back in, spray the bullied bird with an anti-peck spray. (Just on the pecked bits, cause it's not very nice for the bird to be covered with it when they're preening themself.) Watch them all for a couple of hours and if the bullies try anything, chase them off immediately. Hopefully that should sort out your problem.