Pecking Problem Please Help!!!

[TurnerFlock]

We are new chicken owners. We got 5 chickens to start with at the beginning of July. 1 Buff Orpington, 1 Delaware, 1 Wyandotte, and 2 Polish. The have been in the outside coop and run since they were 8 weeks. Everyone got along fine. About 2 weeks ago, both Polish started getting the feathers on their heads pecked off by the Orp and the Delaware, the Wyandotte seems uninterested. Now they both are missing feathers off the top of their heads. We put the purple no-peck stuff on. It might help a little. We quarantined off a section of the run and put the 2 Polish in there and then everyone goes in the coop at night. Now we are putting the Orp and the Delaware in the quarantine area. This is not aggressive pecking from what we have seen. If a Polish head happens to be near one of the others beaks, it's going to get pecked. There appears to be no pecking going on once they are back in the coop at night. They have been very resourceful at getting out of the quarantine area so I am sealing it off better this weekend. I really need help solving this problem. I really don't want to build a second coop for the Polish. I built the first big enough for these and then some. Thanks in advance for any advice.

 

[BantamFan4Life]

Welcome to BYC! I'm glad you joined us!

 

[TurnerFlock]

I just realized I put this in the intro section. My apologies. The first few sentences kind of cover an intro though. Glad to be here.

 

[trailrider330]

BluKote, Pick-no-More or Peckless Peepers (I think that's what they are called) may be options. Otherwise, sectioning off part of the coop more permanently may help.

Good luck!

 

[drumstick diva]

It's fine that you posted here. Polish and Silkies are typically peck victims by regular looking chickens. If blu kote doesn't help, you can get "pinless peepers," (put that in the seach box so you can learn about them).

I am thinking of a rather radical approach to the problem. I don't think it has ever been done before, so this would be totally experimental. I am wondering if the topknots and crests were cut back to a more normal length - if the other breeds would stop picking on them.

Maybe it would be worth trying with just one polish. The crests will grow back (unless they are plucked out again.) I think if the flock accepts them with trimmed crests, they may get used to them before the feathers get long again. If so, they could be cut back again. It would benefit the polish(or silkies) in that they would have much better vision without the crest obscuring their eyes. Their reaction time would be much better and maybe they would even peck back.

I hope one of these ways will be of use to you. Otherwise people tend to keep polish and silkies away from other breeds.

 

[steven29128]

Chickens are like kids at times.
Welcome to Back Yard Chickens !

 

[Peep-Chicken]

Hello and welcome to BYC!