Chicken bullying? What to do when it goes too far?

[Wyorp Rock]

I'm in Tasmania (Australia), and attempting to breed Australorp chickens.
I've got several coops and runs, but having trouble with one small group.
I purchased 3x roosters and introduced them to 8 hens about 8 weeks ago. The roosters are about a year old, and the hens about 8 months or so.

What would you do?

The first injured hen is making a great recovery, but the second one doesn't look like she's going to make it

Please post some photos of the hen and her poop.
If she's not doing well, separate her out, see that she's staying hydrated. A little warmed sugar water or electrolytes. Once she's drinking, then offer wet soupy feed.
If she has any wounds, then you'll want to address those by cleaning them and applying an antiseptic or antibiotic ointment.

You are wanting to breed your hens and roosters. I'm not a genetics person, nor am I a breeder. A lot depends on your goals? Are you just wanting to hatch chicks from a variety of roosters X hens or are you wanting to use a specific rooster with hens that have qualities you are looking for?

Hatcheries do place multiple roosters with a great quantity of hens to ensure fertility, but small-scale breeders usually choose a specific rooster to breed specific hens that have the quality and/or characteristics they are looking for.

You don't necessarily have to get rid of the roosters all together you can house each one separately in his own pen. Leave 1 rooster with the hens and see how it goes. You can always rotate roosters in/out with the hens for a couple of days or if you have a specific hen you want bred with a specific rooster, then house her with him for a day or two, then put her back with her flock, collecting her eggs and marking them as you go. Once the mating happens a few times, then a hen will be fertile for a couple of weeks.
There's many ways to do this. Begin researching and reading about how to set up some pens/coops/housing that would fit your goals. It doesn't have to be elaborate, just some simple housing/pens to keep roosters contained and protected - not to mention hens happy and stress free.
Roosters are great, but too many or even just the wrong one that doesn't fit in can cause a lot of disruption, stress and injury to hens.

Just my 2¢

 

[loopycoops]

Please post some photos of the hen and her poop.
If she's not doing well, separate her out, see that she's staying hydrated. A little warmed sugar water or electrolytes. Once she's drinking, then offer wet soupy feed.
If she has any wounds, then you'll want to address those by cleaning them and applying an antiseptic or antibiotic ointment.

You are wanting to breed your hens and roosters. I'm not a genetics person, nor am I a breeder. A lot depends on your goals? Are you just wanting to hatch chicks from a variety of roosters X hens or are you wanting to use a specific rooster with hens that have qualities you are looking for?

Hatcheries do place multiple roosters with a great quantity of hens to ensure fertility, but small-scale breeders usually choose a specific rooster to breed specific hens that have the quality and/or characteristics they are looking for.

You don't necessarily have to get rid of the roosters all together you can house each one separately in his own pen. Leave 1 rooster with the hens and see how it goes. You can always rotate roosters in/out with the hens for a couple of days or if you have a specific hen you want bred with a specific rooster, then house her with him for a day or two, then put her back with her flock, collecting her eggs and marking them as you go. Once the mating happens a few times, then a hen will be fertile for a couple of weeks.
There's many ways to do this. Begin researching and reading about how to set up some pens/coops/housing that would fit your goals. It doesn't have to be elaborate, just some simple housing/pens to keep roosters contained and protected - not to mention hens happy and stress free.
Roosters are great, but too many or even just the wrong one that doesn't fit in can cause a lot of disruption, stress and injury to hens.

Just my 2¢

Thanks so much for your reply- really appreciate that.
I had the two hens recovering quite nicely with the skin healed up, and decided to put them back with their original flock. That same afternoon they were injured once again. I'm still unsure whether it is a rooster and a hen(s) causing the damage or just a rooster. I know for sure one of the roosters caused an injury.
Looks like I'll be keeping the two injured hens isolated from the rest of the flock for now..

 

[SmiYa0126]

Ugh! I'm sorry @loopycoops , @Wyorp Rock gave you some great advice

 

[Eggcessive]

It is hard to place the bullied chickens right back into the flock after being gone awhile and walk away. It needs to be gradual, maybe placing them in a wire crate in the coop and run, where they can be with the other chickens for a week or so and see each other. Then, have some supervised free ranging together while you can stay with them. Do you have an area where they can be near the others with a fnce between them? Game cameras can be helpful to see what is going on when you are not there.

 

[Katiedidnt58]

Cameras are definitely the way to go. I got one to start with because I wanted to know who was laying what and who was causing all the drama every night at bedtime. If I'd poke my head in for a look they'd all be looking at me innocently as if to say, no trouble here, you must've imagined all that banging an crashing etc... Soon as I put a little camera up in the coop I had answers. Whenever I've seen one of the girls obviously in everyone's bad books, a check through the cloud storage tells me exactly why. Chicken TV is also highly amusing at times, you'd be amazed at some of the funny things they do when in the privacy of their house.
I would find out who the nasty rooster is and get rid of him straight away, I wouldn't want to breed from him, his offspring might be as nasty as he