Ostracized hen

[Lemme]

I have a hen who seems to have been ostracized by my flock. I have 8 hens and one rooster. This started a couple of months ago. Prior to that they all got along fine. We noticed one morning that she had a small bleeding wound on her head, like he’d been too rough with her. But the next morning it was a full-on bleeding wound like all of them had been pecking on her. So I isolated and treated her. Kept her in isolation for a few weeks in order to heal completely. Reintroduced her into the flock and the rooster and head hens immediately started chasing and attacking her. We isolated her again just to give her some peace, and just reintroduced her again. Same result. She is harassed constantly and hides all day. She has lost weight from being harassed and not allowed to eat, but otherwise seems healthy. Any ideas before I try to rehome her?

 

[SandyRiverChick]

You've done the right thing but trying to re-integrate but when it's not going to work, I know it sounds harsh, but they will eventually kill her. With my very first flock I learned this the hard way. 2 hens killed another by continuously pecking her head while roosting one night, broke her neck. SO you can keep her by separating her inside your coop /run so she's not alone but they can't get to her OR re-home but there is a chance that her next flock will do the same thing if they are detecting something is "off," about her.

 

[HollowOfWisps]

When you re-introduced her did you have her separated by a fence or something so they could see her, but not touch her?

 

[Lemme]

Yes, I have a small coop that she stayed in right beside the main coop. Just hardware cloth on the sides, so completely see-through. For a while, the main hen and rooster tried to get to her through the wire. Then they gave up and left her alone.

 

[LaFleche]

A rooster should break up fights and stop bullying behaviour between hens, not join in and attack!

If he does not like a hen, he should just ignore her and not attack her.

This rooster should be invited to dinner ASAP and the bullying hen separated from the flock for at least two weeks.
If after rejoining the flock she starts again the soup pot will be a great place for her.