Help! Bullied chicken, bad

[chickenchalupa]

Today one of my hens was sitting on the roof of the coop, trying to get away from the other hens. Shes been like that all day. I went out to investigate and saw that her feathers were missing around her vent and the vent and picked area was bloody. There was blood on the roof too. Shes the skapegoat of the flock and i think the other chickens are picking on her. What should i do? Should i isolate her? Should i remiove her from the flock? Any help would be much appreciated!

 

[ranchhand]

I recommend isolating her where she can still see the others, preferably a fenced off area with the others. Let her heal, then put her back in and put the alpha hen in timeout. It shakes up the pecking order. Also, check to see that the roosts are big enough for all.

I spend a lot of time shaking mine up, just to prevent picking, it's a pain but it works! Good luck!

 

[Kittymomma]

Get some blu-kote from the feedstore to spray on her red areas. It will help her heal faster and reduce pecking issues because she'll be blue instead of red. If the whole flock is picking at her you need to seperate her until she's healed up, if it's just one or two bullies I'd take them out and put them in chicken jail (lg dog crate etc.) for a week or so. The idea is that when they come back they'll have lost their place at the top of the order and be less inclined to pick on the other chickens. Good luck!

---What are you feeding them, how many do you have, and how much coop/run space do they have?