25 chickens and half are pecked at!

[dsmoosecountry]

I know there are lots of threads concerning pecking, but here's my situation.

I have 25 birds. 10 White Rocks, 10 RIR, 3 black austrolorpes, and 2 Aracaunas. First the aracaunas were getting pecked at. One lost all the feathers on it's back. Then the other one was pecked. Then one of the blaks was pecked. This one lost all the feathers around her tail and vent. We tried pine tar, but to no avail. Now almost all the RIRs the Blacks and the Aracaunas are pecked, INCLUDING OUR ROOSTER!! However NONE of the White Rocks are missing a single feather. Interestingly enough, the White Rocks dont' even seem to be the culprets, the RIRs do. I'm a bit at a loss here. They have lots of room in the coop, and in the run, we built it large so we could expand the flock someday. They eat a heathy diet of layer pellets, prepcook veggie scraps from a local resturant, and bread from the local soup kitchen. Any ideas?

 

[chookchick]

I would cut out the bread completely. It is very high carb and low protein, so they could be not getting adequate protein if they fill up on that (and I know they like it!). Cut out all the treats that are not high protein or greens (low carb and keeps them busy and happy). You might want to switch to a higher protein feed for a while, like flock raiser, and make sure they have oyster shell available for calcium. Do they get out of the coop with the colder, rainy weather? Give them interesting things to do, like piles of leaves, mulch, weeds, a few roosting areas, etc...

 

[geebs]

Mites... Check for lice and mites... Then treat with ivomec pour on.... The directions are in this forum somewhere.. works great.... That would lead to pecking... It will stop it immediatley.. Note.. it isn't cheap but it is the Best method I have found for dealing with a large flock with parasites... Good luck.

 

[dsmoosecountry]

What should I look for in the area of mites?

Thanks for the tip on the bread. They do LOVE veggies, and the bread actually has been dwindling as of late.

Has anyone ever fed their chickens any form of meat? My neighbor told me that when he waas young they used to toss a rabbit (after shooting and skinning it) in the run. He said that fresh meat is a good source of protein and it also cuts down on pecking and egg eating. I tried this with the scraps from a mule deer that I got during this years hunting season. They seemed to love the scraps, and it also seemed to slow the pecking down for the time being.

Thanks for your replies.

 

[adorable]

I wouldnt feed them any meat. Just my thoughts.

 

[emys]

Yes, Mine have had tuna and meat scraps plenty of times. They love their tuna treats.

 

[chookchick]

Meat is fine as long as it doesn't has a lot of salt or is rancid. Some people on here get queasy about the idea, think that it will make them into cannibals, but chickens are not vegetarians! I don't like the idea of feeding them chicken (think Mad Cow etc..), but a carcass would keep them very busy.

Check them over carefully for mites and lice, if they are hard to catch, you can use a flashlight on the roost at night, check especially around the vent and head (easy to do when they squat).

 

[dsmoosecountry]

The only thing that is strange to me about it possibly being lice or mites, is that the 10 white rocks don't have any peck marks at all. Do they peck because they can see the lice/mites? That may be a reason they haven't pecked at any of the white rocks... just a thought.