UPDATE: The comb has scabbed over and there's no more bleeding, finally, though there are still some tender-looking areas. In the morning I put the hen in the coop by herself with food and a heated waterer, and locked the flock in the run with food and another heated waterer. In the afternoon, about an hour or two before bedtime, I moved her to the sectioned off part of the run, so the flock could see her. I went into the enclosure with her, for moral support (she looked nervous to be near the flock). The two bullies came at her right away, and tried to get her through the fence!!! And there's nothing red on her at the moment at all, to be triggering them! Other than a few scabs, nothing is different about her. WTF? She looked traumatized and kept hiding behind me. I stepped to the side a few times to see if that's what she was doing, and sure enough, she followed me around and kept putting herself immediately behind me, only occasionally poking her head around the side or stepping to the side to look at the flock, then going back behind me. Poor thing. I sat there for a while, as she seemed comforted by my presence. I sat until the other chickens lost interest and returned to the center of the run to scratch around. After I came out of the enclosure and closed the gate, the victim hen tried to follow me and paced back and forth along the fence, so the bullies came back and resumed trying to get to her, pecking through the chicken wire holes! The large (former) "peacekeeper" hen is the main instigator, with one of the pullets joining in and copying her. The rest mostly mind their own business or show interest but without pecking. So I spent quite some time by the fence pushing the main bully away from it yelling "NO!" at her whenever she tried to intimidate/attack. She was showing a behavior I've only seen in roosters - where they try to intimidate you by keeping their heads low to the ground and pretending to be picking things up from the ground, like random sticks and leaves. The pullet wasn't doing that, only the large hen was. She also kept vocalizing with her threatening voice. We did this back and forth for quite some time. I picked her up and carried her around for a while, and put her down far away from her victim. She kept coming back for quite some time! Eventually she lost interest and returned to minding her business. I have left them at that, and will go and collect the victim in a little bit to put her to bed in the basement again.
This is all so very odd! This hen has never shown such aggressive behavior before, and never done the "picking things up from the ground" intimidation move before. She wasn't close with the pullet who died last week, and she wasn't particularly bossy up until now. She was a gentle giant who kept the peace. What's her problem?!? I'm considering putting her in the run partition tomorrow, with the injured hen in the coop, and the flock in the main run section. She may need some solitary confinement to cool off. Then I may try to put the injured hen in the main run with the others in the afternoon, and observe. If the others are cool with her, then maybe I just keep big booty isolated instead of her victim. Or if any others show aggression, they go to jail with her, until there's only peaceful hens left with the victim.
Here she is this morning, with all her scabs:
The bullies, looking on (the pullet is the one on the right):
Poor fluff hiding behind me:
The whole setup:
