Having some pecking problems I'm trying to deal with. A very small comb injury to our favorite chicken and RIR Cadbury, but big enough to bleed and draw lots of attention. First noticed it this morning, and the other 5 were pushing the issue pretty hard off and on through the day. Went to TSC in search of bluekote and found a similar product. Got home and applied it and the issue seems to be worse now. We now have her in a dog crate under the elevated coop (complete w/ personal water supply). Inside the run which is very secure, so I think she'll be good for tonight. Looks like I'm getting up early to build a hospital coop to keep her in until she heals up. Free ranged them all for the first time tonight for about an hour to give everybody some space. They liked it and it put some space between Cadbury and the rest of the group, but when we got them back together it went right back to where it was.
If anybody has any suggestions on ways to handle this better I'm all ears as this is my first rodeo.
So for the past 2 plus days, I've kept Cadbury in a dog crate inside the coop. Also treated her comb with bluekote. Seems like if the blood was the issue, things should be better by now. Heading off to work shortly and was hoping to see a magical moment when she was fully reunited with the flock and there were chicken hugs all around. Not the case. Opened the crate while the others were out in the run. Almost as soon as she stuck her head out of the chicken door, Peep our jerk chicken pecked her hard. Everybody then piled on. Within 10 seconds she was in the corner with her head tucked away and the others were hovering around waiting for her head to pop up. They're separated now.
We free ranged multiple times this weekend and it seemed to lessen the tension some. I think that had more to do with the fact that Cadbury could maintain some distance from Peep. She did interact with the others a bit and that seemed to go okay. And at times P&C were close with no real problem, but every now and then Peep would make a point to peck her if she was too close.
Not sure what to do here. It seems like Peep is just a real jerk (filtering my words here) and instigates all of this. Kind of seems like all is well until she starts and then it falls apart. Or maybe they all just don't like her and what Peep is doing, others will do in her absence. Doesn't seem like a good situation for Cadbury. So here's my options as I see them:
1.) Make jerk chicken out of the jerk chicken. I think Peep may be the problem. And if having 5 birds instead of 6 helps them feel a little less cramped thus get along better, that extra egg isn't terribly important. Seems like an easy solution but I don't want to cull one bird just to have another become the primary problem. Not sure how likely that is.
2.) Rehome Cadbury. Ugh. My kids would hate this one as would I. But I think we'd all hate to see her get perpetually picked on too. And if this just makes a new target we're in the same boat. I'm sure rehoming wouldn't be a walk in the park either.
3.) Let it play out. Are they just working something out that I keep disrupting by intervening? I haven't been around chickens much, so maybe my Utopian view of the chicken life isn't well calibrated to the realities of flock dynamics and the pecking order. When do you know that aggression is too much?
Really appreciate the guidance I've gotten from everybody with this issue so far. Its great to have a place to bounce this stuff off of experienced people. Thanks in advance for whatever help you can provide!
In case you're wondering we have 6 chickens (2 RIRs, 2 BSLs, and 2 EEs). 24 sq ft of coop space and 60 sq ft of run space. Unsupervised free ranging is not currently an option.
Oyster shell sounds like a good idea. I would put a separate feeder for it in your coop rather than mixing it with the grit, though, so your girls don't have to dig through the grit to find it if they want it. 
They are terribly cute, and such sassy little birds!
How precious! 
