Flock beating up 1 specific hen

[ourfluffybutthut]

One of my flocks has completely turned against one hen!! I've had this flock of 6 for a little over 2 years.

Quick back story: the 5 hens have been together since they were chicks. "Boss" was at the top of the pecking order. In January I added a 2 year old rooster. The pecking order was reestablished to where Hei Hei became the top hen.

Yesterday, for no particular reason known to me, the entire flock started beating the crap out of Boss. They absolutely wouldn't let up. Boss would get away and try to hide but they would all gang back up on her and attack within seconds. Even the low ranking Wyandottes that have never shown a day of aggression in their lives were attacking her. All of them were totally relentless and after watching this for a short time I rescued Boss and put her in our chicken tractor to save her the torture.

My dilemma: I've read to remove a single mean chicken for a few days and then reintroduce but what do you do when ALL of the hens AND the rooster are being hateful to one particular hen?

Currently, Boss is with my 15 week old flock of 13 in a temp chicken tractor while we build our second coup.

Not sure how to stop this behavior and get boss back in with her original flock mates.

Help? Suggestions?

 

[sourland]

It may be impossible to return her to her original flock. Once a bird has been deposed it can rarely regain its place in the pecking order. She could stay with the new flock or if you are going to merge them with the old flock do so 'all at once'.

 

[Sueby]

I had a change in pecking order not too long ago & one bird was getting beat up by everybody badly, to the point she was a bit bloody on the face. I separated her out where they could all see each other for a few days then put her back in. There was a bit of regular bully stuff, but the bad beatings ceased. If they weren't all beating on her I would have put a friend in with her, but she didn't have a single one at that point.

They are all ok together now, though she is low man & stays a bit away from everyone. She still eats fine sneaking in when she can & she roosts with them no problem.

Good luck, I hope you can work it out. If I hadn't been so lucky I would have considered culling/rehoming her. She's always going broody on me & I wouldn't have been too sad to see her go anyway. All for the harmony of the flock...

 

[K0k0shka]

Something like this happened to me last year and the hen did regain her rank in the flock and go on to live peacefully with them. I was able to figure out what was happening though. What looked like "all against one" wasn't actually exactly like that. There was one instigator hen, the rest were just following along because she was high in rank. The way I figured that out was when I separated the injured hen, I didn't take her out of view of the flock - I didn't want her to be forgotten and demoted even further. I put her behind a chicken wire divider in the run, and I observed. The rest of the flock went about their business, but the instigator hen would continue charging at her even through the chicken wire. That's how I singled her out as the main culprit. When the injured hen's face started healing and there was no more visible blood (a couple of days), I put her back with the flock and put the instigator hen behind the partition. I stayed with them for a while to watch what would happen. The bully hen was pacing along the divider looking pissed, but since there was nothing she could do, the rest of the hens did nothing. Most of them were below the injured hen in rank, only got brave enough when led and backed by the high ranking bully, but they wouldn't try it on their own. The injured hen saw her opportunity and went around re-establishing her place with the lower ranking former bullies, and she really showed them! I was mad at them for ganging up on her (she's my favorite) so I kinda went further in helping her... I held each of them down for her to get a couple good pecks in Not totally fair, I admit, but they needed a lesson. Nobody was injured, they just needed a reminder. I kept the high ranking bully in the partition for a couple of weeks. By then the injured hen had healed and regained her confidence. When I let the instigator hen back with the flock, she went straight to assert herself with the victim, but didn't have a following this time, so it was no more than a peck or two, the victim bowed her head and walked away, nobody else joined in, and it fizzled out quickly. It's been over a year since that incident, with no more drama. I don't know how much overlap there is with your situation, just wanted to share this story as encouragement that the bullied hen doesn't have to be a lost cause with the flock. If you can figure out if any one of the others is leading the attacks, and remove her, the chances for peace go up.