Poor picked on chicken by 2 others

[Hoopla63]

I have a flock of 9 hens of two varieties. There is one hen that two other hens are constantly chasing, pecking, jumping on, preventing from eating and drinking. We've witnessed this, when we see it we try to thwart the behavior but that is temporary. Is there anything we can do to help this picked on hen and or break the habits of bullying from these two hens? The picked on hen is really looking bad, feathers missing and about 1/2 the size in weight of the healthy hens. Pictured is the picked on hen.

 

[sourland]

I'd try Pin Less Peepers on the aggressors and provide multiple food and water stations for the picked on hen.

 

[Mrs. K]

I agree with the above, or I would reduce the number of birds in your flock. How old are your birds? Often times, what was enough space when they were smaller is not enough space when they become full size. Being raised together has no influence on this, being allowed out a couple of hours to 'free' range will not address it either.

Some birds have a lower tolerance to crowding.

But another thing to consider is what does your run look like? Is it an bare open rectangle where as every chicken can see every other chicken 100% of the time? If so look up cluttered runs, while they look cluttered to you, they actually give birds more space because they use the vertical space. They allow places to put the feed bowls, so that while eating at one station, they cannot be seen by a bird eating at another.

I would add clutter, try the pin less peepers and if that does not work, reduce the flock size.

Mrs K