Came Outside to a Beat up Hen This Morning!

[chickengal7]

When going to feed the chickens this morning I noticed that one of my hens is beat up. All of her tail feathers have been plucked (except for one) and she has a raw/bleeding spot on her behind. My three other hens are completely fine, so I am positive nothing got into the pen. My four adult chickens are kept in a 10x10 pen and have a small coop inside. The only thing that I can think of is that one, or all three, of the other hens attacked her. Inside the coop there are a bunch of feathers (99% of them are hers) and then outside on the opposite side of the pen there are more of her feathers by the gate, so she was attacked in several places.

Any ideas why this happened? All four of them have lived together for 8 months and never fought. Any ideas would be helpful!! The hen is separated for now and will be until she heals but I want to know what to do to prevent this in the future!

Thanks!

 

[Areeba]

Give her meal worms or protein food for few days hope this work

 

[dawg53]

It could be overcrowding in the small coop that you mentioned as well as a pecking order issue. I recommend that you expand the coop.

 

[chickengal7]

Thank you! We actually ordered a shed for them and that should be delivered soon. Any ideas why it would be so sudden? They have had the same set up for several months and never had an issue :/ any idea on how to work out a pecking order issue? When first introduced eight months ago, this hen was at the top of the pecking order.