Well I've been reading up on "mean girl syndrome" and following everyone's advice as best as I can...and now I'm at the point where I don't know what to do next. In a nutshell: I have five pullets at point of lay or close to it, and three "mean girls" who are one year old. My goal is to have all eight girls living happily together in their new coop...which is a shed conversion, much bigger, stronger, safer and nicer than their old coop. After much juggling, I have the pullets living in the new coop, and the hens locked up in the the old coop with attached run. I think the theory is that when the big girls are finally let back into the flock with the younger girls, the pecking order will be upset and the mean girls won't be mean anymore. Sounds great but...how long to I have to keep my girls locked up to accomplish this? Does it actually work?
Here are my girls in jail...not happy