New Bullying Behavior

[VioletBlueBell]

I have a small backyard flock of 5 hens, all the same age, about 6 months. There has always been one dominant hen but she's never been nasty, until yesterday when she straight up attacked one of my other hens, pulling feathers out of her head and making her bleed. These girls have a huge space to be in, get grazing time for hours daily, plenty of fun stimulation/food sources. The only thing that's changed is that one of my other hens went broody (yes really! Even though she's only been laying a month). Anyway, the boss hen is still being quite mean to the poor victim hen. Anything I can do? And what gives? I'm scared she's going to get more hurt

 

[JaeG]

Broodies are often picked on by other hens so if its possible to separate off your broody into her own space that will keep her safe for now. Or you can try breaking her but it sounds like she's going to be a broody girl so she will no doubt try again.

I've got an Orpington who will lay about 10 eggs then go broody, sit for 6 weeks, molt, recover, lay another 10 eggs and do it all over again, all summer long. She lays all winter without a break though so I'm not complaining.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

See "The Pecking Order" in this forum