Feather pulling?

[NorthWoodsFever]

I just witnessed one of my hens grabbing neck feathers on another one, pull, remove a couple feathers and eat one of them? What on Earth? The other hen just sat there and continued to eat afterward, than the hen did it again until I intervined. And both went off together and continued bug/green hunting.

I've never seen this before. The hens have been together since birth and are about 2 years old now. Usually they will peck at each other and such, run off, etc. But this was a new one for me to see.

 

[Judy]

Feather picking can be due to a need for more protein in the diet, particularly animal protein I believe, or to too little space and boredom.

Or it can just be something they do once in a while, just as you will occasionally see a chicken pick up a feather off the ground and eat it. I'd just keep my eye out for it, and see what develops. You may not have a problem at all. Are they molting, or beginning to molt, by any chance? It's probably more tempting to pull and eat a loose feather or one at an odd angle. If there's a molt, a little extra protein is always a good idea.

 

[janinepeters]

Agree with flockmaster, mostly. The desire for more protein is just a hypothesis, while most people would agree that crowding and boredom are definite causes. If they have meaningful access to good quality habitat for foraging, feather picking usually does not become a habit. It it does, I just give them more time free ranging (which for me is not exactly free ranging - it's running around in a large fenced in yard with good grass, trees, shrubs, and a bunch of compost bins). It has developed in my flock only when we are away on vacation (when we keep them locked up in coop and runs), and in winter when weather is cold, windy, or snowy, and they choose to stay indoors.

 

[NorthWoodsFever]

Thank you for the replys.

The girls are normally out and about in a large fenced in yard during the day with plenty of things to occupy them...mostly dust bathing and scratching around in my mulch pile which they have spread over a 40' section! lol I have one that is just starting to molt now, so will keep an eye on things. I haven't seen anymore of the feather pulling that I witnessed the one day...so perhaps they were just setting the who's in charge mode.

 

[azygous]

It's not necessarily a sign of a problem if you see one hen yank a few feathers from the throat of another. It may have just seemed like the thing to do at the time. It's normal for hens who were raised together to become best friends and to preen each other. Sometimes the preening can get over enthusiastic.

However, if you observe the same hen engage in this behavior on a daily basis, around the same time each day, (feather pickers favor late afternoon for some reason to escalate this activity) and if you notice some naked necks developing, then you may have a problem.

Feather picking is suspected to have a nutritional causation. Whether it's a protein deficiency or a lack of other nutrients, eating feathers may help satisfy something lacking in the diet. It could also be that the individual hen may have some imbalance in her intestines that retard her ability to absorb all the nutrients in the feed. All we can do is provide additional protein and maybe yogurt to improve the intestinal balance, and hope something works.

Check out my thread https://www.backyardchickens.com/u/45606/azygous and see how I've been tackling this problem in my flock in case you find you have this problem in yours some day.