One chicken keeps getting beat up by the rest of the flock. HELP!!!

[kinabranson]

Honestly we are getting super frustrated. We have 1 Green queen rooster, 1 green queen hen, 4 Australorps hens, 3 barred rocks hens and now only 1 Buff Orpington hen. The other sadly passed super randomly. No idea the cause. All are about a year and a half old. They have ALL grown up together. I noticed about before her passing though that the other was getting beat up on. The flock often wouldnt let her eat or would peck at her head. She still tried to remain apart of the group. So when i hear one died, i was certain it was her. Either they attacked her or she was malnourished from not being able to eat. However, when I got home, it was the other hen. Again no idea what happened. Now this hen was alone and being attacked heavily. Her head had open wounds and she was very clearly scared. We assumed it was the rooster as he was the one we saw physically attacking her that day. So we pulled her out. After healing up for a couple of days, we decided to let them all out to free roam. HE went for her again but then we noticed, it wasn't just him. It was all of them. They all seem to have turned on her. We are just at a loss of what to do and why this happened in the first place. Do chickens go after one that isn't their breed even when they have all grown up together? They have tons of space. She is perfectly healthy otherwise. Is this normal, like "ahhh thats the animal kingdom for ya..." or is there something we should look for that's causing this?

 

[StinkyAcres]

How much space exactly is "tons of space?" Dimensions of coop and run, mainly.

 

[rosemarythyme]

In addition to the amount of space, how much time do they spend in their run vs free ranging? What's in the run, if anything? Is there plenty of clutter to provide hiding space and enrichment to keep them busy, are there multiple feeders and waterers spread out to reduce conflict over food?

The fact that they grew up together doesn't affect the fact that chickens can turn on flock mates to try and drive out birds they sense are weaker, possibly sick, or just undesirable for some reason. Maybe the fact that she looks different is part of it.

 

[Mrs. K]

Sometimes this does happen. An easy solution is to remove her from the flock. Either the flock will settle down, and be peaceful or they will pick a new victim. If they settle down, I would sell the bird, or plan to keep her separately.

If they don't, well the rooster would be gone and his cohort.

Another thing you can try is pin less peepers. People have reported good luck with improving flock dynamics with them.

As stated above, being raised together has no influence on adult behavior.

Mrs K