chicken starting to pick

[stewart1217]

A couple days ago my chickens stop laying in the boxes and started to lay under the coup and now I have 1 chicken starting to pick just one of the other chickens. I have 7 total and all was raised together from chicks and now they are about a year old. The 1 chicken goes in the coup and sets on a nest and this other one comes in and gets on top of the other and starts picking at her head and now she in her nest and got up under the hay so its covering her whole body. Can anyone help me with this problem please?

 

[earlybird10842]

Block off the bottom of the coop, or make it very hard to lay there. I have an old shovel head I like to stick on top of nests where they chickens are not supposed to lay. Remove all eggs from down there immediately, so the chickens don't see them and think "oh, that's the nest"
How long has the mean chicken been doing this? You can separate the birds when you see them pecking on each other, or you can separate the mean bird from the flock a few days, then reintroduce. Dig up the chicken that is under the hay, and make sure she's not hurt.

 

[stewart1217]

I have already blocked off where they can't get up under the house and I noticed a couple days ago the mean one took a couple of pecks at one of the other chickens but nothing serious, but today the mean one seemed like it wasn't going to give up. She would get on top of the chicken when she was on the nest and go for her head hard, it kind of look like the birds where trying too mate like I have seen other kinds of birds do. The bird isn't injured and the mean one seemed to have let up a bit or had the last time I was outside. Thank you for your help. We are new to this and we bought the flock last week and was told a lot about their habits but nothing like this. Thanks again.

 

[earlybird10842]

I have already blocked off where they can't get up under the house and I noticed a couple days ago the mean one took a couple of pecks at one of the other chickens but nothing serious, but today the mean one seemed like it wasn't going to give up. She would get on top of the chicken when she was on the nest and go for her head hard, it kind of look like the birds where trying too mate like I have seen other kinds of birds do. The bird isn't injured and the mean one seemed to have let up a bit or had the last time I was outside. Thank you for your help. We are new to this and we bought the flock last week and was told a lot about their habits but nothing like this. Thanks again.

Hm. Well, if it happens over and over again, mean one might need to be separated for a bit.

 

[stewart1217]

Thank you for the information and I thought about doing something with the mean one and separating her is one way to go.