Still Ostracizing one of the hens

[JoCin]

Hi BYC, I have 6 hens all 1.5 years old. I posted a couple weeks ago about my #5 possibly trying to move-up in the pecking order and failing and now going through a tough time. I had some good advice saying it could take up to 3 weeks for everyone to settle down. It's been just over 2 weeks and things are not changing at all. The other 5 are not drawing blood, but they will not let her in the flock with them. She has to be by herself all day. She is allowed to lay her egg and to sleep on the roosting bar at night. Otherwise, they make sure she's on her own all day. They limit her feed. I have been hand feeding her. We have added an additional waterer. She has lost some weight. It has not affected her laying. Our #6 has indeed started in on her pretty rough to move-up. I'm beginning to wonder if this will ever end or is it the new normal? Apparently I'm an empath because this has been heart-wrenching and with all the pecking order information I read, I did not see this one lasting so long. Any advice would be appreciated.

 

[HoneyBeeHomestead]

Hello, are any of the hens nice to her? I wonder if it would help if you took out the meanest hen/s and separated them for a day or two, then reintroduce. Or if that doesn't work, separate #5 with the 1 or 2 hens that pick on her the least, then reintroduce after a couple of days.
The best option might be to (if you are able) separate them into two groups and keep them out of the coop for at least a few days or longer(probably a few weeks would be best). Clean out the coop and move a few things around if anything is movable. Then reintroduce with lots of treats as distractions. I'm no professional in flock dynamics, but I'm thinking maybe a reset to help them forget their current flock dynamics and completely restart the pecking order might help.

 

[JoCin]

Hi, thanks for the reply. One hen has seemed to have stopped picking on her. The other 4 harass her.