Thanks for all the feedback! We've had these hens for over two years and never had this problem until recently. They are literally only in the coop to roost at night and upon waking, are out. There is definitely one hen who pecks more than the others -- at least we believe that to be the case...
1) We have them locked in their raised 30" deep x 6' wide x 3' tall coop until 5:30 each morning, then we open the door into their 15 x 15 pen until about 4:00 p.m., then they free range until they decide it's time to walk up their ramp into the coop for the night -- around 8:30. Could this be...
We have six hens and a few months ago they started plucking each others feathers out on their backs to the point of bleeding! We sprayed them with chicken bitter uck stuff and put aprons on them and the feathers would begin to grow back ... kind of. The hens would then pick at each others...
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I'm thinking you may be right that they're bored. I'll keep an eye on them and make sure no one is getting picked on while the two heal up. I'll look into hen saddles, too. Thanks to all!
Except we don't have a rooster ... checked last night and no parasites ... the feathers are broken off and some are pulled out completely, but nowhere to be found in the coop or pen. Still a bit confused, but not as worried! Thanks!
Well, I took pictures but can't figure out how to post them ... I realize that doesn't help you help me! I can't find an 'attach' or 'insert' or anything of the sort.
We don't have a rooster -- at least we don't think we do. They're only about 28 weeks old and are all supposed to be hens. No one is crowing, but one of the two with the problem is one we think is looking more like a rooster than a hen (crown on top of her/his head is getting larger by the...
Two of our six hens are missing a large patch of feathers on their back and the skin is red and raw. No predator has gotten to them and it just happened while we were gone for about four hours today. They were fine this morning when we let them out of the coop into their pen. Any ideas...
Good morning! I'm new to the forum, but been a user of the site for much longer. Love it!! We've had four hens since March of this year (actually started with six but one died as a chick and another was killed by a dog visiting the neighbor up the hill two weeks ago -- and we were worried...