Ostracized Chicken

[crystlh]

We have 7 hens. All different breeds. We got them all as baby chicks about a year ago. They have a large run and great hen house. We did have some feather pecking with a few of the chicks so we increased the protein, provided multiple food/water sources etc. They stay in their coop while we are at work about 10 hours per/day then we let them out in the yard. Other than that we have had no issues until we went out of town for one weekend and when we returned the black australorp (Peck) was acting abnormal and then she jumped on the back of the Americana (Maui). We just figured it was nothing and they needed to duke it out. Then the next day/remainder of the week she would not come out of the hen house; she stayed on the perch all day long while the others were in the run until we got home and let them out. We also noticed that her beak was injured and she was not eating well and most likely why she jumped on Maui's back and hasn't defended herself. We then and currently are separating her while we were at work so she is not in the hen house in the heat. This has gone on for weeks and now its to the point where she is constanly being jumped by the other chickens (all of them). She is afraid of them and runs away and hides etc. Its horrible. She appears to be healthy, eating etc just has a bald head from the attacks.
We understand that we should remove the aggressive ones which Maui is a chicken on the bottom of the pecking order. We have been conducting some different experiments and nothing seems to make a difference; we'd hate to remove them permanently but will do what is best for them. We are in the process of building a second coop to keep Maui and the most aggressive chicken in for a few weeks or so to see if that makes a difference. She also sleeps with all the chicks in the coop; no issues at this point. We pull her out of the coop in the morning.

We don't understand why they keep attacking her when she is clearly on the bottom of the order?
Could it be her dark color? Weird cuz they all got along so great and she has always been a very docile bird...one of our favorites.

I wished I knew how to communicate with them so I can figure out what we are doing wrong.

Thanks for your help!

 

[Judy]

Separating her during the day will make it rougher on her when you put her back, just as removing a "bully" for a week or so causes that chicken to be at the botom of the order. It is possible that her injured beak is why they attack her, as an instinctive effort to remove weak members of the flock. If I were going to separate her permanently, I'd try it with another low ranking bird rather than a high ranking one. Sometimes flocks seem to attack the ones that the humans handle the most, too.