Feather picking, pinless peepers, and diet

[Weeg]

@Chicalina Would be helpful here I believe.
To answer your questions, ar you sure they don't have protein deficiency?
1. What % protein is needed to prevent feather eating?
You need 20% protein in your feed to prevent feather plucking, and egg eating.
2. Do you think they're eating the feathers due to diet issues or behavioral?
I think it is diet, and boredom, here are a few links for toys to try!
3. How long can I safely keep the pinless peepers on, especially if a hen does not seem to be eating or drinking?
I would never use them. They make me squirm thinking about something in MY nostrils.
4. How long have you kept pinless peepers on before? Did they work? My hens always revert as soon as they come off.
Never used them.
5. What supplements can/should I feed to reduce feather eating?
You need a 20% protein feed AT LEAST. I like Scratch and Peck flock raiser for my birds. ITs 20% and stopped the egg eating. A game meat bird starter feed is also a good option, it often has 20+ percent protein. You can also feed rooster booster. That is a great source of vitamins! Hope this helps, Avery

 

[aart]

I would never use them. They make me squirm thinking about something in MY nostrils.

Many have used them with great success.

You need 20% protein in your feed to prevent feather plucking, and egg eating.

Not necessarily....space can be an issue also......not to mention the occasional neurotic birds that will never get along with anyone.

 

[Chicalina]

1. My guess is that there is something in the environment that can be improved upon to reduce this behaviour. I note the OP doesn't want to take and share photos of the setup, but I expect that this is key to resolving the problem. I'm sure lots of us can make some good suggestions if we saw what housing and run facilities they had. Things like distractions, lines of sight, hiding places, escape routes, etc are all things that can be discussed.

2. It also seems that the hens have created a habit of bad behaviour patterns, and this needs to be broken. A bit of time invested in observing and intervening for a few days on the trot (perhaps with a water gun or a saucepan and spoon to hand) might work.

3. Another thing to think about is the groupings. Details of how many chickens and who is separated with whom in what group would be helpful (sorry if I've missed that or didn't follow it). Some collaborative input into rejigging those groups into different configurations that work better might be useful. Assuming the OP isn't wanting to remove any of them permanently.

4. And finally, it is clear to me that the OP has lost confidence and perhaps some motivation because it has become such an insurmountable problem. Hence resorting to the awful PP (no, I'm not a fan). They sound desperate yet also a bit resigned. Well, I'm sure BYC can collectively come up with some ideas, and some positivity for you, OP.

5. PS re the food, my flock are usually on 15% protein and there is no egg eating or feather plucking, so I'm not sure that 20% thing is essential. A general chicken vitamin added to their water will do no harm and might help, especially with stress, bullying and upheaval.

Looking forward to photos of the coops and runs, details of the groups, and any more details the OP can give so we can all brainstorm solutions.

 

[Fishychick]

These photos are from over a year ago except for a few and don't do Chickentopia justice. It's changed a lot. I've since divided the chickens in to three separate runs from the two in the photos (two with roosters and then all the hens together in the larger area). There are two houses divided in to three areas. It's 356 square feet total for the houses and runs. I've since added ramps all over the place in the hens' run and house. The naked hen is Dulcinea last April. It's hard for me to find time to process photos but I used to have time. I have thousands of photos on my web site but nothing recent. I got my first iphone and can now take photos without processing off my digital camera. I feed two cups of dried mealworms and grasshoppers in the evening and layer feed in the morning sprinkled with calf manna now. So, what do you want to see a photo of?

 

[Chicalina]

I'm not sure what value those pics are if you say you've changed it so much since you took them! You've got an iPhone now so just take a few more today or tomorrow and post them. Also a diagram of the layout would be good, and a who's who and who lives where. Information!!

 

[Fishychick]

I have previously gone in to all of that. For the purposes of this post about the girls, the largest area has five hens. There are two adjacent areas, one with two roosters, and one with three roosters. The roosters don't have contact with the hens. I'll take some photos tomorrow but have to figure out how to get them from my phone to the laptop by e-mailing myself I guess. I have the to-scale plans I made when I had Chickentopia built. I could scan those. I'm not sure how it's relevant to the issue at hand of hens defeathering each other.

 

[Fishychick]

 

[Fishychick]

I'm not sure that I put the photos in there correctly. Regardless, you can see that Chickentopia does exist! I did NOT make it up! There are two houses (one split about 1/3 and 2/3) and three runs. For the purposes of this post, I was asking advice on how to keep my hens (well, really, mostly Daffy who you can see in the food bowl with peepers on) from ripping each others feathers out. So, there are five hens together. Yes, I have two other areas, one with three roosters and one with two roosters but that is not really relevant to this unless you're going to say that Daffy is upset she's not getting any so she attacks her nieces. When the roosters were with the hens, they were getting ripped open so I couldn't allow that and separated them.

Also, except for poor naked Dulcinea, the other 9 chickens are perfectly able to fly to the roosts which the roosters do readily but the hens refuse to do so! They used to fly to roost when they lived with the roosters but without them egging them on to join them, they stay low to the ground. So, the ramps were necessary to get Dulcie and Ariel up off the ground so they wouldn't be attacked as much. The hens and two roosters were separated on 4/6/20. The other three roosters were separated 9/18/19. Four of the chickens were born April 2018, and other six were born April 2019. I'm out of places to make more runs! I already have to clean and fill 5 food bowls and 5 water bowls every day for 10 birds!

 

[06492Chicks]

This is an older thread, but I first just wanted to say WOW to your set-up. I can't imagine chickens being bored in there. Also, I'm going out of my mind with feather picking (three naked butts; no chance to heal; seems everyone's in on the new awful game of butt pecking), and I'd love to hear if you made any progress or have any tips.

 

[Mrs. K]

I have to smile to those that consider the pinless peepers torture, and then complain of naked butts, bloody wounds, and terrorized chickens.

If what you are doing isn't working, you have to change something, wishing they would all be nice won't work.

Mrs K