What the Peck?

Pecking. One of the hardest situations we have had to deal with so far while raising these birds. Poor Miss Cleo is getting the short end of the stick in this situation. Granted, the pecking order is a real thing as I have spoken on in previous posts. However, when there is blood involved you have to approach the situation differently.
   Cleo is at the bottom of the pecking order in our flock. She is also the largest hen which I find interesting. I have seen other hens peck at her and she tolerates it. I kept saying if you just stick up for yourself just once it will probably stop. Unfortunately, she does not understand what I am saying, ha-ha! Each time I would see it happen I would intervene, however, we are not around 24/7 to monitor them so
Cory and I had to go back to the drawing board.
  The feathers at the top of Cleo's tail are missing. This is a common place for hens to peck. I did quite a bit of research on this topic to understand why this is happening, how to fix it and how to prevent it going forward. A ton of other flocksters had pecking occur in the same area of their hens so we were not alone which is reassuring. At first I felt like we were doing something wrong. Do the girls not have enough food and water? Yes, plenty. Do they need more space? No, free range is their daily routine. Are they getting enough protein and nutrients? Yes! So what is it then? Time to test some different solutions out and wait to see which one sticks.
  We purchased a hen saddle for Cleo that lays across her back and covers up her tail so the hens can no longer see the bare skin and would hopefully stop pecking her. Honestly, it worked. She looked adorable and it was protecting her enough so she could heal and allow her feathers to grow back.
 Things were going great, until they weren't. One of our Rhode Island Reds has it out for Cleo. The reason why we still have not figured out. Cleo had the feathers of her under belly plucked out and it created a pretty big wound. I felt and still feel terrible that it happened. This poor girl cannot catch a break. We brought her inside, cleaned and disinfected the wound. We then sprayed Blu-Kote on it. An antiseptic spray that sanitizes the wound, stops the bleeding and helps the healing process. This stuff is the real deal.
 Cleo is currently separated from the other girls again and she will be for a few more weeks until her feathers grow back and her wound is fully healed. The re-introduction of her to the coop again will be a process. We need to make sure this issue does not keep happening. I am hopeful that the long time apart the hens will forget the situation and we will be good to go. Another option is to remove the bird who is causing the issues and let the flock develop a new pecking order with Cleo involved and then try adding the trouble maker back in. Potentially having that hen be at the bottom of the pecking order in a peaceful way. I have learned that sometimes raising chickens can have stressful situations and you have to test different scenarios out until something works. We just need to keep in mind that we will figure it out!