How long do I separate a bully hen

[Crandall4]

We have 6 hens.
3 are 1 1/2 years old. And 3 are about 16 weeks old. We went through all of the things we were supposed to do. We introduced the young ones for a few weeks with side-by-side fence scenarios. And then when they seemed comfortable, we put them together during the dayand at night, together in the roosting area. There’s one particular adult hen who chases the young ones out of the roost. She’s quite a pain and now she’s getting the other two older hen are acting a similar way but not as bad. We have separated the bully at night, putting her on the outside roost bar to separate from the inside roost, where the other 5 are. (Nightime is when the behavior is the worst) It hasn’t really changed her manners much. I’m wondering if we’re doing the right thing? She been separate it for seven nights now.

 

[aart]

How much space do they have, in feet by feet, in both coop and run?
Dimensions and pics would help immensely here.
Pics of coop inside showing roosts would help too.

Did they live side by 24/7 for those few weeks?
Do they have multiple feed/water stations and places to 'hide'?
Separating the bully will not likely help, they need to work it out.


Oh, and.... Welcome to BYC! @Crandall4
Where in this world are you located?
Climate, and time of year, is almost always a factor.
Please add your general geographical location to your profile.
It's easy to do, and then it's always there!

 

[Ridgerunner]

There’s one particular adult hen who chases the young ones out of the roost.

That's pretty common in my flock. Until my pullets mature enough to join the pecking order they form a sub-flock, day and night and avoid the adults. That's usually until they start to lay. They may mingle a bit during the day but usually not that much. At night the juveniles are not allowed on the roosts. That's where I see the bullying, often a hen fairly low in the adult pecking order.

How do I solve that? I don't know what your coop or roosts look like. The larger the better. But I solve it by not caring where the juveniles sleep as long as it is not my nests and is somewhere predator safe. I let them work it out on their schedule and consider it a part of chickens growing up with the flock.

I almost always have juveniles in with my flock. This is such a normal occurrence I put in a separate roost, higher than the nests, lower than the main roosts, and horizontally separated a few feet to give the juveniles that want to roost a safe place to go where the adults don't bully them. When I have a third group, younger still, they tend to sleep on the coop floor. So what? They are safe and not in my nests.

Are you seeing aggression anywhere else or is it just on the roosts?

 

[Mrs. K]

Try splitting the roost with a piece of cardboard, so that that birds on one side of the roost can't reach birds on the other side of the cardboard.

 

[Heidi Marston]

We have 6 hens.
3 are 1 1/2 years old. And 3 are about 16 weeks old. We went through all of the things we were supposed to do. We introduced the young ones for a few weeks with side-by-side fence scenarios. And then when they seemed comfortable, we put them together during the dayand at night, together in the roosting area. There’s one particular adult hen who chases the young ones out of the roost. She’s quite a pain and now she’s getting the other two older hen are acting a similar way but not as bad. We have separated the bully at night, putting her on the outside roost bar to separate from the inside roost, where the other 5 are. (Nightime is when the behavior is the worst) It hasn’t really changed her manners much. I’m wondering if we’re doing the right thing? She been separate it for seven nights now.

Do you have a light in the coop? I pulled the nightlight out of our coop and the bad behavior calmed down tremendously.