Chicken Jail, how long?

[KDbeads]

I sent Ezzy to jail today with her nesting box. She only pecks at the others while they are roosting, and she mainly pecks at one particular one. I know it's the whole pecking order thing but she really tore up Red in the last week. So much so that Red spent the last 2 days in my living room with nasty face and comb injuries. She looked better today so I locked up Ezzy, pulled out the EE who looked like the newest target, and put Red back in. No problems....

But May (EE) looks terrible. Same side of the face, same amount of damage minus the comb since hers is so small. She really must be uncomfortable because she willingly let me clean her up and doctor her, normally she runs screaming if I touch her. Right now she's in the hospital crate curled up in the corner hiding the damaged side of her face.

So, I'm not letting Ezzy back in until after May has healed and rejoined the flock (2 days?) but how long after that should I wait before letting her back in?

 

[Uppity Peon]

I would be tempted to renamer her "Sue P". She seems especially viscious.

 

[Overeasyplz]

Awww. poor birds! That mean bird would get jail time for life in the freezer here! She'd be extra delish

 

[elmo]

I had the beginnings of a similar problem in my flock. I pulled the offender into a time out yesterday for a couple of hours, but when I reintroduced her, she went right back to picking on her victim. So I let her sleep last night in my summer coop with another hen, away from the rest of the flock. This morning, I let her out, and she went right back to her old tricks. So she spent the morning alone in the summer coop.

Around 1 p.m. today, I let all the chickens out to free range together. I watched closely for several hours (it was a beautiful day here, almost 80 degrees), and saw no more agression. So tonight everyone's back in the coop together.

We'll see how things go tomorrow.