Hen on the warpath

How old are they?

 

Do you have a crate you can put her in for a week or so? Is your coop big enough to put the crate in the coop? You can try that or just totally remove her from the coop for a week, then re introduce her. It will change the pecking order around and she may have forgotten her issues with Vernie.

 

Far be it for me to understand the inner workings of a chicken's brain.

However have you considered the possibility that there is a new dynamic at work in your wee flock?

Chickens are birds after all and there is a good reason that people who exhibit behavior that you or I may find bazar are referred to as BIRD brains.

The molt often brings on new relationships among both hens and roosters as they change appearances, at least their appearances in the eyes of other flock members. Remember that chickens are not devout Quakers. Also Vernie may be in the early stages of a debilitating disease and the "Uber Rooster" acting Violet is hammering a hen who is beginning to display weakness. Like I previously said, chickens are not Quakers and they have little patience with weaker members of their flock.

Many is the time I or a family member have chopped off the head of a dominant rooster and before the flopping had stopped two or three subordinate roosters had rushed in to claim the title of head rooster by attacking the still flopping but now powerless corpse of their former lord and master.

Vernie is likely also just finishing up her molt and Vernie's appearance may also have changed, at least in Violet's eyes.

I realize that some of us may not be able to, or even want to keep roosters. However, an athletically inclined and vigorous rooster will suppress most of the hen squabbles because he views aggression for what it really is in the chicken world, social climbing. In a rooster's eye he is the cock-of-the-walk and if there is any tussling to be done he want's to be the only one that does it because that is how he maintains his place in the flock's social hierarchy.