Hen Pecking Chicks

[Chicklady720]

I have 3 week old chicks that my lowest pecking order hen is mothering. One of my other hens is going into the coop in the evening and bullying my hen and her chicks. She will peck at the chicks and chase one of them out of the coop. She chased all of them out tonight and wouldn’t let my hen and her chicks back inside until everyone else was in the coop.
What can I do to stop this hen from bullying?

 

[yakitori]

I have my chicks and hen (also lowest in the pecking order) in a dog crate inside the run. I’m not sure whether you can fit a similar set up in the coop...

 

[Sassy Hen]

Once hens have established their “pecking order” it’s very hard to stop a bullying hen so prevention isn’t really an answer for this issue. Instead I would trey separating the mothering hen and her chicks from the rest of the flock for a while because chicks aren’t always able to cope with colder temperatures at night. When the chicks are chased out, do you see them huddling? If there’s only a few they should be able to find heat under the hen’s wings, but there’s only so many chicks that can be there when chicks get bigger. If it’s warm where you live and you don’t notice injuries then they should be OK and can stay in the coop. But if you don’t want them being so miserable (or if you spot injuries) you can use a “secondary coop” or a dog crate to nurse the chickens in. Hope this helps!

 

[Sassy Hen]

Another thing you can try is removing the bully hen from the coop and putting her in a small separate encloser (like a dog crate) to try to teach her a lesson. If it doesn’t work or if a different hen also starts being a bully, then you’ll have to separate the chickens that are being bullied.

 

[Chicklady720]

Ok, thanks for the advice. The chicks are fine, they are unharmed. And we live in Oklahoma, it’s plenty warm. I did consider separating the bully, bc she is also broody right now, and I want to break her anyway.
After my mothering (lowest pecking order) hen is finished raising these chicks, I am going to give her to a friend. She just gets picked on too much. She is a frizzle, so small.