Starting over with new hens?

pdirt said:

Ah, yes, I do remember seeing your photos before. Beautiful setup.

When you had 9 chickens, that meant you had about 2.5 square feet per bird in your 6x4 coop. If your coop was prefab, the mfr will tell you that is plenty of space. Seasoned chicken owners say it's more like 4 square feet per bird, minimum. Then you had 7 birds, that's still only 3.4 sq feet per bird. It sounds like, yes, your birds were originally overcrowded and that developed the feather picking. Combined with the bad habit brought on due to overcrowding (even if in such a lovely coop!) plus the fact they were still overcrowded (by seasoned chicken owner's standards), that may have helped some, but the bad habit had already been learned. Now that you're up to nearly 5 sq feet per bird, yes the space shouldn't be an issue anymore, but perhaps the picking habit is more deeply ingrained now. Perhaps try to rehab them in some way, like isolating the worst offenders for a while. Since it sounds ALL the birds have developed the habit, you might need to rotate each of the birds into your chicken hospital, one at a time...not sure if that will work, but worth a try.

Not sure if this has been covered before or not. You say you feed good feed...what's the protein content? Picture of a feed label might help. If you're feeding a 16% layer, plus veggies (which are very low protein in general) several times a week, they may not be getting enough protein. If so, stop feeding the veggies for a while and instead, feed them some no-salt canned fish or some ground beef. Feathers are about 80% protein and one cause of feather picking is low protein...they eat the feathers to get more protein.

If low protein has been an issue, it's very possible the low protein combined with the tight quarters was a good recipe for feather picking...so the cause may not have been just one thing.

I'd say keep trying to remedy. If all else fails, you could start anew with 5 new birds (or even 6) and more likely, that bad habit won't develop.

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tcarter said:

Quote:
Well, it does sound like you're doing things well, it all looks quite good. And I'm certainly no seasoned chicken owner! I've just learned from others, just like you.

Yeah, I think you may just have a problem of feather picking. The "reasons" why they did it are no longer present, but they're still doing it, probably out of habit. If I were in your shoes, I'd either get rid of the feather peckers and replace with new birds or try rotating one or two of all the birds into the chicken hospital to see if I could disrupt the habit pattern enough to change things. The most sure way would be to replace your flock, or at least the ones who are feather picking. I wish you the best of luck and do let us know how it turns out.

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pdirt said:

Well, it does sound like you're doing things well, it all looks quite good. And I'm certainly no seasoned chicken owner! I've just learned from others, just like you.

Yeah, I think you may just have a problem of feather picking. The "reasons" why they did it are no longer present, but they're still doing it, probably out of habit. If I were in your shoes, I'd either get rid of the feather peckers and replace with new birds or try rotating one or two of all the birds into the chicken hospital to see if I could disrupt the habit pattern enough to change things. The most sure way would be to replace your flock, or at least the ones who are feather picking. I wish you the best of luck and do let us know how it turns out.

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hardscaper87 said:

Not sure your location but as cold as it has been here I have been treating my hens with flock fuel. It is soy bean oil based, fortified vitamin supplement, I know you said you feed the best feed you can get but other than just a bad habit I tend to think it is a nutrition issue, as far as feed storage a lot of proteins and minerals tend to degrade fast when exposed to oxygen. Do you buy from a mill or a big box store?

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tcarter said:

pdirt said:

Ah, yes, I do remember seeing your photos before. Beautiful setup.

When you had 9 chickens, that meant you had about 2.5 square feet per bird in your 6x4 coop. If your coop was prefab, the mfr will tell you that is plenty of space. Seasoned chicken owners say it's more like 4 square feet per bird, minimum. Then you had 7 birds, that's still only 3.4 sq feet per bird. It sounds like, yes, your birds were originally overcrowded and that developed the feather picking. Combined with the bad habit brought on due to overcrowding (even if in such a lovely coop!) plus the fact they were still overcrowded (by seasoned chicken owner's standards), that may have helped some, but the bad habit had already been learned. Now that you're up to nearly 5 sq feet per bird, yes the space shouldn't be an issue anymore, but perhaps the picking habit is more deeply ingrained now. Perhaps try to rehab them in some way, like isolating the worst offenders for a while. Since it sounds ALL the birds have developed the habit, you might need to rotate each of the birds into your chicken hospital, one at a time...not sure if that will work, but worth a try.

Not sure if this has been covered before or not. You say you feed good feed...what's the protein content? Picture of a feed label might help. If you're feeding a 16% layer, plus veggies (which are very low protein in general) several times a week, they may not be getting enough protein. If so, stop feeding the veggies for a while and instead, feed them some no-salt canned fish or some ground beef. Feathers are about 80% protein and one cause of feather picking is low protein...they eat the feathers to get more protein.

If low protein has been an issue, it's very possible the low protein combined with the tight quarters was a good recipe for feather picking...so the cause may not have been just one thing.

I'd say keep trying to remedy. If all else fails, you could start anew with 5 new birds (or even 6) and more likely, that bad habit won't develop.

Click to expand...

Thank you for the compliments, as I truly do try to strive for good care and love for all my animals. Yes! The seasoned chicken owners, like you, are sure helping me a lot! Thank you very much! I am feeding H&H organic "old fashioned" layer feed 19% protein. It is beautiful stuff with real seeds mixed in. They love it. They get a handful of meal worms per day when I put them up at night also. I hang a cabbage in the pen twice a week. The spinach is only a few leaves as a treat. They love popped popcorn, so they get maybe a cup of that to share once a week. I scatter it out in the yard for them to find. Not a lot of extra treats, but here and there. I try to be consistent with the cabbage as a boredom thing, though. I will try separating each one over time and see if it helps. I will add other protein, too, as you suggested. I don't think they find enough bugs.

I am a believer that the crowding must be a big factor. Now that they learned the bad behavior I hope I don't lose all of them. Only one, my precious Freckles, never picks on anyone. She is lowest in the order. I would like to keep her. The others could go if I had to let them go.

This is Freckles in my chicken hospital. Poor baby was pecked so bad. The white stuff you might notice on her bare butt was Desitin. I used that to keep the other chickens from pecking, but did not need it after she was separated. That is why her feathers appear to be a different color near her rear, too. Some cream got on there.

This is Freckles (standing sideways) after being separated. Full saddle of feathers back. Sassy (further away) was her friend in the hospital. She grew feathers back also.

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