Hen aggression toward pullets

[esmith27]

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[LaFleche]

How big are your coop and run? Could you post some pictures of your set up?

I suppose that for one, the age gap is too big and for two, the space was not big enough and without much possibilities to get out of each others faces.

A good rooster would have prevented this from happening, so I assume you keep hens only?

What breeds do you have? Some are more tolerant than others.

 

[Chickassan]

Young hens are awful to anything smaller than them unless they were part of the brood you raised them with.
Older hens 1year and up are too,the defining difference being that they're mature enough to cease after they've made their point.
Couple ways you can have this not happen.
Expose new birds safely to the existing ones from the start, even if this means caging your new ones inside your existing setup every day a few hours from chickhood.
Two, like LaFleche said a good rooster.
A good one wont let that "beat up the kids" nonsense happen.
He's a peacemaker and attitude adjuster.

 

[Ridgerunner]

How big, in feet or meters, is your coop? How big, in feet or meters, is your run? Photos could help. Was that corner in the coop or run? Trying to find out what you are working with.

I find that regardless of breed, my pullets tend to form a sub-flock and avoid the older birds until they mature enough to force their way into the pecking order. With mine that is about when they start to lay. Until they reach that level of maturity the pullets are way down in the pecking order. If they invade the personal space of a more mature chicken they are likely to get pecked. When they get pecked they run away. It usually doesn't take them long to learn to avoid the older ones.

One way that chickens manage aggression is that the weaker runs away. There may be some chasing but usually if the weaker runs away it's over. Some older ones are more aggressive than others. If the weaker cannot run away, maybe they are trapped in a corner, the winner doesn't realize she won so she keeps attacking. The weaker tends to hunch down and try to protect its head. The winner tries to attack the head, that's where they can most easily kill the other. My guess is that the chick invaded the personal space of the older hen either on its own or the older one wandered into the chick's space. The chick was trapped in the corner and could not get away.

What can you do? What do you have to work with? In general provide as much room as you can. Improve the quality of what space you do have by adding clutter. Clutter means things they can hide under, behind, or over to break line of sight. Separate feeding and watering stations allow them to eat and drink without having to invade the personal space of an older chicken. How best to do this will depend on what you have to work with.

 

[LaFleche]

The setup is not big. The coop is 4 feet long, 3 feet wide, salt box shaped.The enclosure is 8 feet long, 6 feet wide, and 8 feet tall, but I figured if they needed to escape they had access to the coop itself and roosts. I guess that is where I went wrong.
Normally I let them into a fenced-in area in the yard where they can run away from the hens but when they are unattended I keep them in the enclosure because we have a lot of hawks around here.
I have one Rhode Island Red, 1 Sussex, 3 Orpington, a maran, and an Easter egger. Aggression seems to be coming mostly from the Sussex and the Rhode Island.

Thank you for the pictures and measurement.

4 young pullets (11 weeks old) to live with my 7 hens (9 months old).

I would consider the cramped space your accomodations offer to be fit to hold 2 standard size hens max. and not 11 like you tried to squeeze in.

No wonder they are aggressive and fight til death for the little space they have.

Please reconsider and amplify the space or rehome some of your hens or chicks.

 

[Chickassan]

You seem to have a lot of bushes around, lots of cover from hawks.
This time of year when there are so many much easier meals for hawks to snatch you could allow them to forage more safely than you think.
Hens scan for threats just as roosters do and are capable escape artists.
That Speckled Sussex can blend in like you wouldn't believe in leaf litter.
Happy girls make all the difference, and foraging in peak season is heaven for chickens.