My mean hen continues to peck my pullets until they blead.

[Roses1421]

My hen, Baby, keeps on pecking my 12 week old pullets. This has been going on for 6 weeks now and needs to stop. We tried everything from jail time to playpen methods to slow introductions. She is making them bleed, on the face. We all think Baby has a hard time getting used to the pullets because of what happened to our earlier flock. The flock that we recently had was attacked by a predator most likely a young fox or weasel. She was the only chicken that escapped and it took her a couple weeks to finally get out of her coop. If this continues any longer we will have to find a smaller coop for her to stay in and I really don't want her to be alone. The absolute last option we have is to get rid of her and not many people will take a hen that has nearly stopped laying eggs.

 

[Folly's place]

Welcome!
Try pinless peepers!
How big is the coop and run, how many feeders and waterers, places to avoid being seen, what are they all eating, and how many pullets? What breeds?
This is not okay, there's chasing, but injuring these pullets is 'beyond the pale'.
Mary

 

[Ebony Rose]

If she's just being mean, and not stressed or brooding (both will cause overly aggressive behavior), then she'd be invited FOR dinner.
Chasing after, and pecking younger birds to assert dominance and pecking order is totally acceptable, UNTIL they draw blood repeatedly.
If this is a new introduction though, then the onus is on you. Separate the birds in a look-don't-touch situation for at least a week, then offer the new members to the flock plenty of ways to duck under, behind, around, and out of harms way when you reintroduce them, somewhere that the big birds cannot easily pursue. Place food and water in this 'safe zone' so that the established flock cannot deny the newcomers groceries.

 

[Roses1421]

If she's just being mean, and not stressed or brooding (both will cause overly aggressive behavior), then she'd be invited FOR dinner.
Chasing after, and pecking younger birds to assert dominance and pecking order is totally acceptable, UNTIL they draw blood repeatedly.
If this is a new introduction though, then the onus is on you. Separate the birds in a look-don't-touch situation for at least a week, then offer the new members to the flock plenty of ways to duck under, behind, around, and out of harms way when you reintroduce them, somewhere that the big birds cannot easily pursue. Place food and water in this 'safe zone' so that the established flock cannot deny the newcomers groceries.

Thanks! We tried seperating thein a look-dont-touch for 2 weeks but she would still try pecking them through the wire. We even put tree stumps and bins for the girls to run behind like you suggested. We might have to try again. For now durring the day we let her rome our yard and place her food and water about 2 feet from the coop and at night we have her sleep in a cage in the garage. I tried leaving her in the coop to roost with the pullets in there while supervising but she jumps down and chases the little ones and pecks them until there is blood comming of there nose. I have a picture of what she did to a pullet of ours, named Dill, you might not be able to see from the purple spray we put on her.

 

[Folly's place]

She sounds like a looser to me, sorry. If pinless peepers fail, that would definitely be it here.
Mary

 

[rosemarythyme]

Thank you! We are going to try pinless peepers. We have a total of three waterer and feeders. One feeder has layer feed the others have chick feed. The man we got our coop from said it would be big enough to hold 8 chickens and we recently added an extension for our new birds. We have 5 pullets all different breeds, cochin, ameraucana, brahma, Orpington, and a green queen. We only have 6 chickens in total. I uploaded a picture of our coop and our problematic hen.

How much sq ft is that? Exact run and coop measurements would help. Just eyeballing it it's too small for the number of birds especially during integration (Can't tell if the part behind there open? There's a blue structure in back and some mulch but not sure if that's part of the same run space or not?) Space related stress is a top reason for aggression issues.

There's also no real clutter for the younger birds to take cover behind. Clutter eats up space, which is why having more than minimum space is important especially while integrating.

Pinless peepers to me should be a last resort. It's not a magic fix. Improve the layout and space and maybe add in the peepers as well, and that should help ease some of the tension in there.

Also put all the birds on the same feed - as there's no way to stop the younger birds from eating layer, they should all be on all flock or grower. Provide oyster shell on the side for the hen.

 

[Gooseface]

I had to get rid of my bully. She pecked everyone else’s tails until they bled. Put her in jail for a week....same thing. Adios chicken!

 

[Roses1421]

She sounds like a looser to me, sorry. If pinless peepers fail, that would definitely be it here.
Mary

Thank you so much for your help! We are going to get pinless peepers now.

 

[Folly's place]

I've eliminated antisocial birds too; peace is a wonderful thing!
Mary

 

[Folly's place]

This hen has had a rough time, being an only survivor, and I'd feel bad sending her off too. But she needs to behave better, with whatever you can do to modify the coop, and her current obnoxious attitude.
Mary