Chicken stressing others out?

[ALAsamu]

HI there,
I currently have 4 chickens. Three are at egg laying age, but one is just finishing raising her chicks so we don't get any eggs from her. My question is, my broody hen seems to bully two specific chickens but primarily one and that chicken is well into her egg laying age, could she be inhibiting her from laying? We have maybe gotten 5 eggs from the bullied chicken in the past 6 months and that was when I separated my broody hen to hatch.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Stress can cause hens to stop laying. Generally if you are seeing bullying enough to affect laying your birds don't have enough room to get away from each other. Are they confined? Are there places birds can go to get away?

 

[ALAsamu]

Stress can cause hens to stop laying. Generally if you are seeing bullying enough to affect laying your birds don't have enough room to get away from each other. Are they confined? Are there places birds can go to get away?

They have multiple roosts in different areas and I put up different places for them to hide. They are confined to about 20x10 foot run and then a 5x10 covered coop for the night. Almost every morning there are at least 3 of them who have escaped to the yard so I let them scratch around for bugs for a few hours before I put them back in. Is space an issue or is that hen just not a good layer?

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Space sounds okay, though you can never give them enough space. What breed is your hen? Some take breaks throughout the season.