bloody hen

[Bob the chicken]

A couple weeks ago I posted that there was alot of pecking going on with and that three hens were getting real bare on their back side just above the tail. It was recommended that I get the apron the help the situation. I did and all was well until this afternoon.
One of the hens with the apron was head first in the nesting bo. Just below the apron and around the tail she was actually pecked raw, the tail feathers were stripped about half their length and quit a bit of blood.
I was shocked to see that hens would be so brutal with each other.
Any ideas what could set this off? Let me guess, now they like the taste of blood and their going to peck each other to death one by one.
Whats next? What to do?

my name is bob, and I am chicken

 

[KMHunter]

I am fairly new at all of this, but are there one or two hens that are doing most of the bullying? If so then remove them for 3-4 days and then reintroduce them. They should be down in the pecking order some and hopefully not peck at the others. You will have to watch for awhile to make sure that the one that has been pecked raw is doing ok and not being picked on by all now that it has started.

 

[farmin'chick]

I'd take her out for a day or two to heal over, use blue-kote (follow the egg avoidance instr for the required number of days...)(okay, I always ignore them) and make sure to blue-kote her again in case some has worn off right before you put her back in.

 

[Pathfinders]

Chickens picking each other's feathers are generally always related to one of two things:

- Not enough space
- Not enough protein

What kind of food are you feeding your birds? What percentage of protein? What kind of protein? Does the feed have animal protein in it? If not, you need to add some, soonest.

Tell you what, I wrote you all an article about feather picking, check it out here:

http://www.ehow.com/how_5446970_stop-chickens-feather-picking.html