one of my hens went rogue and pecking my other hens butts, did damage

[christina09]

So any suggestions on my hen that started picking on the others????i have segragated her from others but i know i cant forever... do i clip the beak, file it down or get rid of her??? she did damage and she just keeps charging all of them right for the bullseye!

 

[aitchg]

Same started happening with one on my laying hens. I isolated her too. Any help will be appreciated. I am in upstate NY and this started happening when it became really cold. They are 8 in number, confined in a 4x8 coop + 8x16 attached run when it is snow around and below freezing. This doesn't happen when I let them roam free in the yard (temperature in high 30s with not much windchill. Interestingly, it has not harmed the weakest/smallest of the group, and the rogue one happens to be the biggest/strongest. Btw, I put turmeric powder as a natural healing/antibiotic for the wounds.

 

[AwallRooster]

Sounds like your hens are establishing the "pecking order"which means the one hen that is doing the damage is at the top of the pecking order or dominate hen..this is natural for chickens, but when it turns bloody,there is only one way to fix this problem....take the alpha hen out of the coop an run,for a week ,keep her totaly away from her sisters,after a week put her back in with them,this should put her down to the bottom on their "pecking order", if it don"t,put her by herself again, this time for 2 weeks, an this should solve your pecking problem..for a time being,..

 

[sumi]

Same started happening with one on my laying hens. I isolated her too. Any help will be appreciated. I am in upstate NY and this started happening when it became really cold. They are 8 in number, confined in a 4x8 coop + 8x16 attached run when it is snow around and below freezing. This doesn't happen when I let them roam free in the yard (temperature in high 30s with not much windchill. Interestingly, it has not harmed the weakest/smallest of the group, and the rogue one happens to be the biggest/strongest. Btw, I put turmeric powder as a natural healing/antibiotic for the wounds.

It sounds like your hens are bored and frustrated, being stuck in the coop run. What you can do is give them something to peck instead of each other, like a cabbage hung in the run or a flock block. Here's some recipes for flock blocks if you want to make one:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/733009/flock-block-recipe

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/723868/my-flock-block-recipe

As a last resort you can also try what we call "pinless peepers" or poultry blinders. These work quite well.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/144815/pinless-peeper-poultry-blinders

Put some Blu-kote on the wounds to mask the blood and stop them pecking it. Good luck!