Flock turning on one hen

[mordecai123]

My flock is all about one year old, they have all grown up together. About 2 weeks ago I noticed one of my hens had started molting. This week my entire flock has turned on her. She gets attacked constantly by all of the other hens. I have let her out of the run the past few days because she had an injury that I was letting heal up. Today I covered her in Pick no More in hopes that that would deter my flock from attacking her, but it didn't help. As soon as they saw that she was in with them they jumped on her and drew blood on her neck. I don't know what to do. She doesn't seem sick, goes about her day roaming my yard while the other girls are in the run. Any ideas of what I can do?

 

[CoopBoots]

Yikes, I'm so sorry. How many members in the flock aside from her? And how much space in the run?

I have a couple of lower rank hens that I consider to be either too submissive, or too impaired in some other way, to properly dodge serious bullying. I keep them in a side run/sub-flock with only a few other hens who I monitor for good/bad behavior and provide them with lots of space/hidey holes in case things turn ugly before I catch it.

My theory on bullying is that extremely cowardly or weak hens get branded as liabilities with the dominant crowd, who then may move to just eliminate them entirely. I bet you have a ringleader or two your coward hen is the most afraid of that are instigating some of this behavior. I'd try crating your coward in a look-but-no-touch setup to see who stalks her through the fence vs. ignores her. You might be able to reset a couple of these bullies via separation and see if the majority may still accept your coward with a slow, safe reintroduction. Then you can decide what to do with the bullies or the coward, and whether you want to try reintegration for all.

 

[aart]

Starting to molt may have changed her behavior enough to garner attention.
How old, in weeks or months, are these birds?
I assume you are in the southern hemisphere?

 

[mordecai123]

Yikes, I'm so sorry. How many members in the flock aside from her? And how much space in the run?

I have a couple of lower rank hens that I consider to be either too submissive, or too impaired in some other way, to properly dodge serious bullying. I keep them in a side run/sub-flock with only a few other hens who I monitor for good/bad behavior and provide them with lots of space/hidey holes in case things turn ugly before I catch it.

My theory on bullying is that extremely cowardly or weak hens get branded as liabilities with the dominant crowd, who then may move to just eliminate them entirely. I bet you have a ringleader or two your coward hen is the most afraid of that are instigating some of this behavior. I'd try crating your coward in a look-but-no-touch setup to see who stalks her through the fence vs. ignores her. You might be able to reset a couple of these bullies via separation and see if the majority may still accept your coward with a slow, safe reintroduction. Then you can decide what to do with the bullies or the coward, and whether you want to try reintegration for

Yikes, I'm so sorry. How many members in the flock aside from her? And how much space in the run?

I have a couple of lower rank hens that I consider to be either too submissive, or too impaired in some other way, to properly dodge serious bullying. I keep them in a side run/sub-flock with only a few other hens who I monitor for good/bad behavior and provide them with lots of space/hidey holes in case things turn ugly before I catch it.

My theory on bullying is that extremely cowardly or weak hens get branded as liabilities with the dominant crowd, who then may move to just eliminate them entirely. I bet you have a ringleader or two your coward hen is the most afraid of that are instigating some of this behavior. I'd try crating your coward in a look-but-no-touch setup to see who stalks her through the fence vs. ignores her. You might be able to reset a couple of these bullies via separation and see if the majority may still accept your coward with a slow, safe reintroduction. Then you can decide what to do with the bullies or the coward, and whether you want to try reintegration for all.

Oh yeah I know who the instigator is for sure. Thanks for the help! I will try that and see what happens. There are 6 other hens and she is my smallest hen and has always been close to the bottom of the rank, so that makes sense.

 

[mordecai123]

Starting to molt may have changed her behavior enough to garner attention.
How old, in weeks or months, are these birds?
I assume you are in the southern hemisphere?

We got them almost exactly a year ago. Nevada, USA, so northern hemisphere. From what I read 12 months is a little early for her first molt and weird that it is in the spring. I can see her new feathers coming in though so I don't think it is just from being picked on.

 

[aart]

We got them almost exactly a year ago. Nevada, USA, so northern hemisphere. From what I read 12 months is a little early for her first molt and weird that it is in the spring. I can see her new feathers coming in though so I don't think it is just from being picked on.

Yes, it is weird, unless you've been using supplemental lighting.

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