Feather Plucking.....Bored/Stressed Chickens?

[chicksnhorses]

Hi everyone:

This is my first post. I have looked for answers but I am pretty much at a loss as to what I can do. I have 3 chickens with almost entirely naked butts and 3 chickens with feathers being plucked at their heads. One of my cochins is literally almost bald.

My situation is as follows. I live in upstate New York. I have 17 hens (no roos). 7 are 18+months old and the others are 8 months old. All were raised by me as day old chicks All are laying. I have all heavy breeds (Australorps - 5 Cochins - 2 Light Brahmas - 4 and Buff Orpingtons - 6). Normally my chickens free range and put themselves up for the night in their 7x11 coop. This winter has been tough as most probably know. Most days I leave a door open so the chickens can go outside if they so chose. We snowblow an area in front of the coop, but it is impossible to get down to grass/dirt as it is awful out there this year. It is a rare day, I keep the coop closed up all day. Everyday I feed them treats (BOSS, white millet, scraps from the kitchens, etc.) outside to encourage them to get out. They have a head of cabbage hanging in the coop almost continually. I also put BOSS, scratch and millet in the coop for them to scratch around and find. They eat Purina Layer Crumbles.

I have repeatedly looked for mites and or lice on them and I have found nothing. I use the deep litter method and put DE in the bedding. I use Equine Pine moistened back to sawdust. Is it even possible to see mites/lice? Would there be other signs besides feather plucking?

In researching, it seems like the other reason for feather plucking is high stress levels. I guess I am looking to find out if anyone has any other ideas to help lower their stress level. I just don't know what else to do. Last winter I had 8 hens and they almost killed one hen by pecking at her vent. Thankfully, I found it in time and she recovered fine. The hens all did fine once they were free ranging come spring. These last 2 months seems to have really taken it's toll.

Another thing I was doing was using a light timer to ensure they had 14 hrs of light per day. About a month ago I thought that might be stressing them out, so I backed it up an hour. Yesterday I backed it up another hour. They now have natural light for about 10hrs a day and I am supplementing 2. I was thinking maybe I should go back to natural light only so the days are shorter and they would have less time to be "bored or stressed".

Maybe I am making something out of nothing, but those poor chickens. I can't imagine what they might look like in another couple of months until spring! It should be noted, that I do not observe aggression so to speak within my flock. They all seem to get along pretty well for chickens!

Any and all suggestions are appreciated.

Sorry this has been so lengthy and I apologize if I posted this to the wrong place in the index.

Thanks everyone!
Beatrice

 

[7L Farm]

I have the same problem. I've tried everything more protein, pinless peepers, cabbage, flock block you name it I've tried it. Wish I new the answer but don't. I now let them free range all day every day but their butts are still bare. They pick each others butt while their on the roost. I do spray their butts with blukote to hide the red spots hoping some day they will quit. I hate to loose any but who knows. Think I'm gonna get some pine tar nexts. Good Luck!!

 

[Jim from Cincinnati]

May I ask, in what size house you have the 17 hens?

 

[NHchicks]

Do you think the increased length of light could be stimulating them to molt? Might their bodies think it's fall? Just a guess.

 

[teach1rusl]

So have you actually witnessed anyone picking at another's feathers, or are you just seeing the end product?? Here's a picture of my GLW, who had a very late molt (just now beginning to recover) :

Do yours look anything like this??? I guess I'm wondering if your older birds are molting. Your youngers could have a molt, but that's iffy to me at this age. Personally, I'd do away with any scraps other than high protein ones, and I might go with a bag of Flock Raiser (I believe it has about 22% protein rather than the 16% of layer feed) until you see signs of recovery. Of course if you do that, you'd need to make sure they had oyster shell available. I sure hope things settle down for you soon!

 

[chicksnhorses]

My chickens are in a 7 X 11 chickens coop with 3 levels of roosts and 6 nest boxes. I know the floor space is inadequate for chickens which are always confined, but mine are not. With the exception of those REALLY nasty days when I keep the coop closed, they have the option to free range if they would like.

One of my chickens (older ones) is going through a late molt (she didn't last fall with the others). She looks just like the others did last fall when they molted. The weird thing is, she has the hard ends of the feathers still attached to her skin, whereas with the others, the entire feather shaft is gone. I have seen the chickens picking at each other on occassion.

Would I likely see mites or lice if they had them?

They do have access to a flock block, grit and oyster shells 24/7.

I, too, thought the picking might be occuring while they were sitting on the roost in the evening which is another reason I decided to back off on the extra light. Should I not do that?

I wish they would go and free range, but the weather this winter has just been so miserable, unless I am out there to coax them out, they chose to stay in. Even if I get them to come out, once I leave, they go back in.

I have been applying Blu-Kote to the butts of the 3, but I have resisted applying it to the heads of the other 3. So far, no one has picked open anyone's skin to it bleeds like they did last winter. Does anyone know if the "No Pick" stuff helps, or is it a waste of money.

I can and will get a bag of Flock Raiser and feed it if you think the extra protein might help.

By the way, the scraps I feed my chickens include, meat, fruit, mashed potatoes, pasta, vegetables etc. They do not get scraps everyday. Maybe a couple of times a week.

Thanks everyone for all your help!

 

[honeydoll]

I have read adding white vinegar to their water calms them down on feather picking, not ACV but the white. So I tried it and it did help, suprise surprise. I also threw in a hand ful of calf manna, and it seemed to help too. Just throwing that out there, mine became serious feather pickers. THis did help.

 

[chicksnhorses]

Thanks for the suggestions. I will try it!

 

[elmo]

I wonder if your attempts to give them something to do with their time by adding treats is lowering the percentage of protein in their diet to the point that this is a factor in the feather picking?

You could try protein supplement like mashed up hardboiled egg, game bird pellets or even cat food (although some people belive that some of the amino acids in cat food are too high for chickens). Even if low protein isn't causing the feather picking, boosting protein can help your chickens regrow their lost feathers, since feathers are composed of protein.

 

[Ironmaiden]

I see you have horses. Is there a way to enlarge your coop a bit? Here is what I did.. I have alot of hay and I don't have any animals but chickens. I shoveled what I could from this darn (scuse me) snow, and then sprinkled hay down so they would have something to walk on. Mine don't like walking on snow. They will however, walk on the hay. Then I give them some scratch. Seems to work for now.
Winter is winding down thank goodness. I think we are all going stir crazy! Humans included!

Good luck!