Injured hen recovering, but the bully hens behaviour is a problem

[equi]

Hi, i have been having trouble getting on the site so my initial problem which was the injured hen has been resolved. The problem was that one of my hens had pecked and plucked out most of her feathers around her vent and picked at the area until it was cut open very badly. Took her to the vet and have antibiotics and have her separated from the others. Shes healing well. But the hen that caused the problem then began to do it to another hen, and same problem began. We caught it earlier this time with minimal damage to the hen and began to spray her with "anti-pecking" spray.

This has been done only twice now so unsure if it is working yet or not. This bully hen has taught another hen (we have 4) to peck but she does it very sporadically so im not terribly worried at this point.

The injured hen will soon be ready to go back into the flock but i am worried she will immediately get pecked again and even though i have put new things in the run (14x7ft) i don't know if it will stop. Should i cut my losses with the bully hen and get rid of her before she corrupts/kills my hens?

I have a friend who would be willing to take her on as a single hen but i'm not sure what that would do for her mentality.

 

[UncleTommy]

you can try taking her out so the pecking order resets with her at the bottom or you can try putting some pinless peepers on them. I've read of alot of people having success with the peepers, plus your hens look funny in them.

 

[brownysfp]

You could try separating the bully when you re-introduce her victim. This could allow an order to be established with bully on the bottom.
It worked with a mean roo we have; he was sectioned off from the main flock but so he could see and hear what was going on. We let him back after a week by which time he'd lost his place on top and now he's a "model citizen". I don't know, it's worth a try. Some birds are just naturally dominant and nasty about it.

 

[equi]

Let all four out in the yard today for the first time ever (the sun is splitting the trees!) and evil hen hasnt went near poorly hen at all! Shes just staying in the yard with her buddy and poorly hen is stay at the other side with her buddy and everyone seems happy.

No idea how i will get them in again

 

[Kittyf]

I love your pictures! They made me want to have a nice cup of tea and read a good mystery. The chickens are lovely and your yard just has that nice wintry look.

kate

 

[wyk-chick]

I am currently going through the same thing with one of my RIR picking on a Plymouth White. She is constantly pecking at this one other chicken. I thought that it might be because the Red just started laying and the White has not yet started. Right now the White is separated until she heals completely, but I think I will remove the Red when the White is getting reintroduced to the flock tomorrow or the day after.
If that doesn't work I will certainly try the peepers.

 

[Orchardhens]

Hi,we had the same thing happen, we removed the victim hen cause all of the other hens were ganging up on her, we think this nasty behavior was because we had to larger breed hens with a group of brown shavers and they were dominant/agressive. The problem did not go away even when we seperated her and fed her up again and all her feathers grew back and put her back with them. We think the best solution is to get rid of the bully hens, cause they just keep doing it. Its a horrible situation, you have to get rid of the bullys cause its not fair for the others!