Sudden aggression after laying resumes

[K0k0shka]

I have a flock of 7 that gets along very well. 5 are hatch-mate hens almost 2 years old, and 2 are hatch-mate pullets from last spring. The pullets haven't started laying yet, though they look to be close. The hens took a long break for winter, and today we finally got our first egg post-break. But suddenly the flock has turned against the hen that has resumed laying! She's been hiding in the coop all day, and when I went to check on them, she came out only to have the flock descend upon her. I guarded her with my arms but her flock-mates were determined and kept trying to get past me to peck at her. Her comb and face are quite bloodied, there's blood all over the coop, and her head and neck look very wet, though not all of it is blood, some looks like water. It's been raining today. They have dry areas in the run and the rest of the chickens are dry. So now I'm trying to figure out what happened and what I should do... Did she get wet from the rain, and they pecked her because she looked different, and it snowballed once they saw blood? Or did they peck at her in her vulnerable state sitting in the nesting box? She was mostly sitting with her butt out, head in towards the back of the box so her head wasn't accessible to the others (you can see the nesting boxes in the photo). Though maybe she turned around at some point. I checked on them periodically on the coop cam, while she was laying, and there were always 1-2 hens standing in front of the box showing interest, but no pecking. Do you guys have any ideas why this is suddenly happening? They have never bloodied each other before, ever. They used to fight over nesting boxes, when all of them were laying, but not by pecking each other, but rather by piling on top of each other and making screeching noises, but no pecking.

I have currently separated the hen out - locked her in the coop with food and water (the flock has food and water outside). I'll keep her there for the rest of the day until she dries up and her comb heals up some. Do I need to put anything on it? Does she need a bath? How long should I keep her separated? Any input would be appreciated. She's one of my favorites and I really don't want this to go downhill.

Thanks!

 

[LaFleche]

They lost a flock-mate a couple of days ago, I wonder if that has anything to do with it. One of the pullets. They didn’t seem to act any different though, besides this attack, so maybe not…

This might be the reason for their readiness to attack. Any change (addition, subtraction, begin of lay etc.) leads to a change in the pecking order and opens possibilities for former subs to ascend.

When these things happen, I found it helpful to colour the combs of several other hens using BlueKote as well. So the injured wiil not stick out any longer.

 

[K0k0shka]

My ladies got gripey and loud, but nothing to that extreme. I'm sorry you're having such a bad couple of weeks! Hopefully someone knows what you should do, or it passes as fast as it started

Thank you! Yes, it’s been a rough start of the new year for me, not just with the chickens but with the human relatives as well (a death and a serious illness). That chicken death and now my beat up fluff all is just icing on the cake I hope I run out of bad luck soon and things start looking up.

 

[K0k0shka]

UPDATE: My hen is spending the night in the basement, in a crate with food and water. I can't risk putting her with the others yet, especially if I can't be there to observe them after they wake up tomorrow morning. Also, it will drop below freezing overnight, and I don't trust that comb of hers in the state it's currently in. I had a hard time stopping the bleeding on one of its points. First I cleaned her up with a warm wet washcloth, then I sprayed the wounds with vetericyn, then I blow-dried her (she was still outside at this point), then I put corn starch on her comb. That one point kept oozing a droplet of blood through the corn starch, so I spent quite some time reapplying, putting pressure, only to have the hen shake her head as soon as I let go, and spray blood everywhere again She was extremely cooperative through it all though, even enjoyed the blow dryer! She has a really calm personality in general, I love her. She just quietly sat in my lap while I did things to her. She got a scrambled egg as a reward. I went to check on her again in the basement before lights out, and her comb wasn't oozing as actively as before, though it still had a wet point amidst the snowy peaks of cornstarch. I'm going to put her back in the coop by herself again tomorrow, and lock the flock in the run.

When would it be safe to return her to the flock? When the comb has scabbed over and there's no red showing? When the scabs fall off? How long can she be separated before they stop recognizing her? I have a sectioned off part of my run that I can put her in, actually, so they can all see each other and not forget her. I just need to run some extension cords to get her water (I have a second heated waterer that I can use, as it will be below freezing outside in the next few days).

Here she is, with the coop all to herself today:

Enjoying the blow dryer:

And a snuggle:

In the infirmary:

The kids gave her some TLC, too:

 

[LaFleche]

Starting to lay will mess with the pecking order and often the hen will be nervous in and out of the coop voicing her discomfort etc. which gets the other hens' attention. And like with dogs, they can try to discipline her for stressing and upsetting the usual routine.

 

[K0k0shka]

I'm going to keep updating this thread, in case it helps somebody in a similar situation. Especially if this gets resolved.

After yesterday's standoff through the fence, I put a visual barrier to give the bullied hen somewhere to hide. I had leftover faux ivy from when I was pimping out the back wall of their run, so I put a sheet of that across the middle divider. It really helped! The hen would hide behind it when she saw the others approaching, and would peek out and retreat as needed. Giving her more control of the situation seemed to help. What also helped was that the main bully seemed a lot more chill today. She didn't go for the kill right away. She did attempt to peck a few times, but I didn't observe any more of the menacing behavior or vocalization. She was also surprisingly and GREATLY distracted by the faux ivy! She'd move in to peck her victim, the victim would duck behind the ivy, and the bully would be like "ooh what's that?" and investigate the ivy. Rinse and repeat countless times. Good thing chickens are so stupid and easily distracted! The ivy really threw her off her game, in a hilarious way! If the victim didn't come out of hiding, the bully would just occupy herself with the ivy for some time, pecking at it or scratching at it (but not in a way like she's trying to get past it and at the other hen, but like she's investigating something intriguing).

One new thing I observed today is that the main bully has started squatting again! She wasn't doing that yesterday. She hasn't laid yet since her winter break, but her face gear has really been reddening lately, and now with the squat, I wonder if all this bitchiness is because she's having pre-laying PMS


Here's poor baby peeking out from behind her cover:

And enjoying the dust bath all to herself, since it's on her side of the divide:

 

[aart]

Whoa...... Brutal!

 

[aart]

The hormonal side of things makes sense. How that translates into odd behavior (or not) is the mysterious part.

Think how rambunctious pullets get when they first start laying,
same thing can happen when older birds come back into lay after winter break.
Hormones are what trigger egg laying.

 

[K0k0shka]

Think how rambunctious pullets get when they first start laying,
same thing can happen when older birds come back into lay after winter break.
Hormones are what trigger egg laying.

No kidding

I thought pullets were supposed to calm down once they start laying, not the opposite... Or at least that's the usual story on BYC threads. Maybe it's more individual than that. Some get rowdy, some chill, others don't show any difference in behavior. Mine weren't rambunctious at all when they first started laying, and right now out of the ones in the process of resuming, the hen that actually laid has shown no change in behavior at all, it's just the one that's about to resume that's flown off her handle. The others are acting normal, too. Joining in if she initiates some BS, but not starting trouble on their own. So I'll chalk it up to individual variation, likely related to the impending egg-laying (in other words, PMS ).

 

[K0k0shka]

How are they doing today?

Much better! I'm keeping the injured hen in the coop for the first half of the day, so she can have access to the nesting boxes in case she wants to lay again (nobody else is laying yet, so I don't care about them being locked out). Then in the afternoon I move her out to the run partition. Today when I moved her out, for the first time since the attack, the bully showed no interest in her whatsoever! Wohoo!!! The injured hen wasn't pacing back and forth along the fence trying to get to me after I left, either. She no longer looks nervous to be near the flock. There's hope!!!