Pecking

[Fredja]

Just recently my flock of 10 hens have started picking on one of the flock. They chase and peck her . I have been checking for any signs of blood and have sprayed with wound spray to the areas where they attack her but to no avail .why have they suddenly taken to this .

 

[Altairsky]

How much protein is there in their feed? Protein should be ideally between 18 and 20%.
Low protein can cause pecking.

What is the age of your hens and their breeds? Sometimes the older pecks the younger, or the most aggressive breeds peck the shy breeds.

How large is your coop? Crowding can also cause stress and pecking issues.

 

[rosemarythyme]

How large is your coop? Crowding can also cause stress and pecking issues.

x2 especially on this point. Are you located somewhere where it's the middle of winter now? Is the flock still going outside and doing normal activities? If they're hiding inside the coop, the crowding from doing so may be what's worsened any pecking order or bullying issues.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Hi, welcome to the forum! Glad you joined!

Just recently my flock of 10 hens have started picking on one of the flock. They chase and peck her . I have been checking for any signs of blood and have sprayed with wound spray to the areas where they attack her but to no avail .why have they suddenly taken to this .

There could be different reasons. Overcrowding is a common one, especially this time of the year for some of us. Depending in where you are in the world and your weather they can experience changes in how much room they have.

Is it all of the other hens or just one or two instigators? For no reason I can determine I've had one chicken take an intense dislike of another. It did not end well.

If one becomes injured or sick the others may try to run it out of the flock or kill it. This is a survival instinct from before they were initially domesticated. A sick or injured chicken can attract predators to their territory so they try to get rid of it.

Each flock has its own internal social order. One chicken is dominant over all of the others, but they are all ranked by social order. Sometimes when there is a change in that social order it can result in violence. Chickens can be brutes and bullies. If a former leader is knocked down by a challenger the others may try to assure she never ranks above them again.

Again with them being brutes and bullies, if a hen is extremely submissive the others may decide they just don't want her in the flock.

It could be something else entirely. It could be a combination. I don't know.

 

[AntiqueB]

I agree with @Ridgerunner , especially about sometimes there being no reason at all.

I introduced 2 new adult girls to my existing flock of 2 adult girls, via look don't touch. When they seemed ok, I put them together, and my top girl mercilessly bullied one of the new ones. And I mean mercilessly: feathers pulled from her head, tips of comb bitten off. I separated one, then the other, it resolved (added pullets), it restarted (case of flystrike on the bullied one), then my top girl bullied all of them. I separated her in the run behind a plastic fence for weeks, but it didn't resolve again until a few days ago. Fingers are still crossed. Those 2 have been at it for over a year.

 

[Ridgerunner]

We all have different goals and reasons to have chickens. One of mine is to raise them for meat, which makes this easier for me. I try to solve for the peace of the flock when I have issues like this. I can sometimes reintegrate them but it soon comes to a point it is not worth the worry and work if it continues. I'm fairly patient through puberty but after that my patience quickly runs out. Sometimes I eat the aggressor, sometimes I eat the one being picked on, even if they are hens.

I applaud you for staying with it for a year, I would never have lasted that long.