Have you ever had hens kill each other?

[aart]

I'm not a big fan of hybrids; red sex links like ISA browns have been inbred so much for max. egg production that they essentially burn out after 2 years. However, I do like the black sex links. I'm guessing they haven't been as intensively bred for egg production - at the expensive of general hardiness, natural instincts, disease resistance, etc. - like some strains of red sex links have.

Hybrids are not 'inbred',
They are specialized crosses often of more the two breeds.
Yes, they are bred to lay a lot of eggs,
which is what wears them out sooner than non high production birds.

 

[Chercher72]

I've raised chickens for a very long time and I would feel quite certain that a bigger predator started the job and something scared it off before it could finish off the other hen. I have had some pretty bad hen fights but never killing another hen. They will fight on occasions but usually one will cower and leave. I had an owl holding down a duck eating the top of her head until I found her. I scared the owl away. The duck did live. They now get penned up every night. Hope this helps.

 

[twendt]

My girls don't act aggressively toward each other, there's an occasional reminder peck, hey, "I'm higher rank". They all know, I'm # 1. I have had to correct their behavior when I introduce newbies, I hold them down for a couple of minutes, or I use my thumb and index finger and grab a little skin and feathers on their neck, it really gets the message across. I have 7 of various ages, they're all pretty calm, I only have 2 that hate being picked up and held (SLW). I won't get that breed again.