One chicken in the flock is a target......

[HeatherKellyB]

What breed is she?
Age?

 

[Bigtom Turkey]

Rooster will break up fights that is why I suggested it.

 

[21hens-incharge]

Rooster will break up fights that is why I suggested it.

I think it depends on the rooster.
I had a great rooster....
Great at alerting to danger, great at finding and sharing treats, an awesome dancer and gentle with the gals.
However he would never ever interfere with a hen battle. Those were rare but not once did he step in.

 

[Bigtom Turkey]

However he would never ever interfere with a hen battle. Those were rare but not once did he step in.

This is astounding for me ALL my rooster would, at even a hint of battle, step in and assert dominance!

 

[Bigtom Turkey]

And that was from many diff breeds and ages!

 

[Wyorp Rock]

These were from October after she'd been beaten up. The blue is where she'd been bloodied and we applied ointment.

Variety of breeds - We have 2 Rhode Islands, 2 Plymouth Barred Rock, 4 Ameracaunas, 3 Brahmas, 2 Buff Orpington, 2 Olive Eggers, 2 Sex Links, 2 Wyandottes, 2 Sussex, 1 Polish, 3 Pearl star Leghorns, 2 Australorps and 2 I'm going blank on at the moment. They have a 16 x 7 foot coop and the entire yard to roam (we live on almost 4 acres), though we will be changing their ranging space over the winter. She's actually been part of the flock for over a year. The bullying has happened over the last 6 months or so.

Looks like she's being mounted. Even if you don't have males, females can mount for dominance.
Breast/crop area, either someone if plucking her or she's plucking out her own feathers.
I would check her crop to make sure it's emptying overnight.
Does she lay eggs at all?

I would assume she's likely at the bottom of the pecking order. A saddle may protect her skin a bit more. Even if you removed the top offenders, whoever is next in line will likely take up where they left off.

I know some would suggest re-homing, but a single bird would probably be hard to re-home and to me, once low in pecking order, always low so wherever she landed, she's going to get picked on there too.

Very likely a rooster is not going to help with this situation. He might, but that's a gamble. Doesn't sound like you want a rooster and if you don't, then you shouldn't have one, they come with their own set of issues sometimes.

 

[elphabafalls]

I've avoided a rooster because I've known several that were aggressive and don't really care about having fertile eggs. I'll consider it if it keeps the flock happier, however (though not sure my neighbor would love me...lol).

I had a rooster that I ended up rehoming simply because our neighbors are very close, and I didn't want to bother them. It was an open adoption, so I get updates and pics frequently. He's a Barred Plymouth Rock, and he is the sweetest little thing to us humans. He was curious and loving toward us from the beginning. If I was eating a plum in the backyard (one of his top favorites), he would jump up in my lap or on my shoulder and help himself to bites. He's now crowing and coming into sexual maturity in his new home. He was a natural leader from birth, however. He would discipline the others and break up fights. When he and a couple of our females were rehomed, he oversaw the integration of our girls into their pre existing flock. He absolutely didn't allow their older hens to bully our younger pullets. My point is that he's protective. He breaks up disputes. He negotiates integrations. I don't know if you can do this with yours because you'd have to raise the rooster probably to develop that kind of relationship with him - and, so you'd know he's a good rooster. It may help to have one just in case this or something like it happens in the future. Geez I miss that baby. We also have a chicken that the others pick on. They've picked on her since she came here to live with us. Recently, 2 things happened. The 2 Black Sex Links we have that are much younger have finally gotten big enough to integrate with the rest of the flock. The other thing is that 5 of our 8 older chickens have started laying. When the 2 babies showed up, the whole flock decided to make sure the babies knew who was in charge by chasing and pecking them. Also, the one older chicken that should be laying because she's older than several that are laying suddenly dropped to the bottom of the pecking order when she used to be at the top. Since our original picked on baby also chases the youngest 2, they're not chasing her really at all anymore. And, since the one that used to be at the top of the pecking order is now at the bottom, that's also helped them forget their ongoing grudge against the one the has been picked on since the beginning. Big changes in the flock made them forget their previous bad behavior.

 

[elphabafalls]

This is astounding for me ALL my rooster would, at even a hint of battle, step in and assert dominance!

I've only had one rooster, but he intervened in disagreements pretty much from birth. He was incredibly protective, very dominant, and concerned himself with every facet of the flock. He was also a person chicken. He was my baby. I guess I got lucky.

 

[DeniseRooke]

We had originally thought that she'd gotten herself stuck trying to get into the garden and that's what happened with the feathers. Yes, she still lays eggs, though fewer than she used to. That's interesting about the mounting and my son did see one of the other hens get on top of her, so that makes sense. We will check her crop, but she appears to eat normally.

Thank you for all the good advice. I've known people with some nasty roosters, so have been reluctant and I'm not sure my neighbors would appreciate crowing along with all the clucking and quacking coming from our yard. While we live out in the country, our house happens to be relatively close to their tenant.