Buff has been pecked horribly bad! Need advise on what to do - PLEASE

[ahunt1976]

I've been having the same problem since we got our chickens. At first my husband bought and raised the "black" chicks, not sure what breed they are but they've always been very agressive. Later we got 3 Russian Orloffs, a rooster and 2 hens, and all 3 got pecked after being introduced to our other chickens. We had to separate them. Later one Russian Orloff hen got pecked to death when she somehow got under the wire that was separating the black chickens from Russian Orloffs... We had to move the remaining 2 a different coop... When winter started the pecking started all over again but among the black ones. The Russian Orloffs always seemed nice and docile. They looked very pretty and always had feathers on. The black ones on the other hand started looking worse and worse every day. One day we had 6 hens badly pecked and one died and 5 others were removed from the coop and we still keep them away from the rest of the chickens and their feathers hasn't grown back! It's been almost 5 months since this happened... After being separated, the 5 wounded hens would still peck each other and the only thing that helped us was putting a lot of pine tar on their backs every morning and evening for several weeks. It was very frustrating but at least they stopped pecking each other to the point that blood was drawn. Since they haven't regrown their feathers back I suspect they keep pecking their feathers just not too much. We've tried everything we could, gave them entertainment, built a bigger run, gave more protein, removed a mean rooster from the flock who we thought was the reason they initially started pecking each other... The pecking seemed to stop but the wounded hens still wouldn't get their feathers back. Originally we had 3 roosters and all 3 were kept in different places. A couple of months after removing a mean rooster we introduced our nice Russian Orloff one to the healthier looking black chickens and another rooster to the wounded hens that we kept apart from the flock trying to let them get their feathers regrown. Both nice-looking roosters started losing their feathers on the back. They don't have bare butts yet but don't look as fluffy and pretty as they used to. The healthier looking hens now have half of the flock with bare butts and they only had one hen that looked like that before... I'm planning on starting to put pine tar back on their backs hoping that it'll stop this behavior again. I can't seem to find a solution for them to regrow their feathers back though. I just came to a conclusion that my hens are plain evil and won't stop pecking each other... I have no idea when they do it because every time I watch them I see them picking on the rooster once in a while but never on each other. I tried putting Blukote on them but it only made things worse, tried duct tape but it doesn't stay on. Is there any special type of duct tape I should use? I'm really tired of them having bare butts... Wish they could regrow they feathers back.

Macliff, I would suggest keeping the wounded hen away from others until she grows her feathers back (hopefully yours will have better luck with that than mine), other hens will kill her if you put her with them. I lost 2 hens already due to pecking. Once they see blood they don't stop until the hen is dead... Once she is fully feathered you will need to introduce her back before they go to sleep so that they can get used to her. And you'll have to keep an eye on her and make sure they accept her back... I heard it's better to introduce several of them back to the flock so that everyone doesn't concentrate on bullying a new hen...

 

[bj taylor]

just a follow up with my delimma of my buff orpingtons being pecked. once i move them to bigger space, the problem stopped immediately. it was as if they were bored & just looking for something to do. i put blu kote on the wounds.

 

[macliff]

Thanks for checking in! I appreciate everyones advice!! I applied BlueKote a few days ago and it seems to be helping the pecking on the 2 hens that were being pecked and are still in the coop! No sign of any new pecking happening to them. Fingers crossed that it keeps up. It is lightening up a bit so I plan to reaply more BlueKote tomorrow. Peg the Buff that is living in the garage is doing okay too. She still has a lot of healing to do. Her wounds are pretty deep. She sleeps in a dog crate in the garage at night then she follows me from the garage out to the backyard to the coop each morning. She hangs out by the run most of the day. She is on the opposite side where she can be safe but still sees the others. I feel bad for her cause she really does just want to go back to the flock. We had about a foot of snow dump on us on Thursday so we had to snowblow a path for her out to the coop and she trots out there each morning. Tonight she returned to the garage on her own at 5:30.
Does anyone know how long it will take her feathers to grow back? I am worried about her reentry to the coop (we go on vacation mid April for 2 weeks)!! Especially because I think it will be a while until she goes back. Still wondering if I should I put another girl in with her??? I think that I have an idea of who the bad girls are. I have 3 NH Reds and 2 of the 3 of them seem to be the mean girls.
Just a thought... We have 2 roosts in the coop. Would it help adding a 3rd when I put her back with the flock to mix things up a bit?
Thanks again everyboday!!

 

[azygous]

The best solution is to cover the poor victim so that the sores and bald skin stop being an attraction to the pickers. If you crochet, you can get the pattern for chicken sweaters on the internet. My neighbor just made me a couple of these stylish numbers, and let me tell you, they fit way better than any cloth saddle I've ever made.

I had her crochet me one with a turtle-neck by extending the rows, decreasing the stitches as the rows neared the top. This one I'll put on my Buff Brahma whose neck has been denuded by pickers.

The way you stop the pickers is to install pinless peepers on them so they aren't as focused on the feathers of their flock mates. This has worked amazingly well for me. Observe who is doing the picking. Pickers generally get wound up mostly in the afternoon that can sometime approach a frenzy. They won't be hard to spot.

You protect the victim while curtailing the behavior of the pickers. Peace should then shortly ensue.

 

[Den in Penn]

They look like a trio of bad dudettes looking to rag on any who don't have the right sweaters on. Thanks for the smile.

The best solution is to cover the poor victim so that the sores and bald skin stop being an attraction to the pickers. If you crochet, you can get the pattern for chicken sweaters on the internet. My neighbor just made me a couple of these stylish numbers, and let me tell you, they fit way better than any cloth saddle I've ever made.

I had her crochet me one with a turtle-neck by extending the rows, decreasing the stitches as the rows neared the top. This one I'll put on my Buff Brahma whose neck has been denuded by pickers.

The way you stop the pickers is to install pinless peepers on them so they aren't as focused on the feathers of their flock mates. This has worked amazingly well for me. Observe who is doing the picking. Pickers generally get wound up mostly in the afternoon that can sometime approach a frenzy. They won't be hard to spot.

You protect the victim while curtailing the behavior of the pickers. Peace should then shortly ensue.

 

[Tikkijane]

Up their protein and you should see results within a few days, seriously (my one bald butted chicken regrew the bulk of her feathers in about 3 days). We've used pinless peepers (put them on everyone because those without with go right for the ones with because it's something new) with pretty good sucess. I've got one left who still plucks every chance she gets with her peepers on, and she's still going in straight on. At this point, she is in the house and kept separate, but obviously, that's not a sustainable fix. I'm still trying to break her of it. The peepers worked well for the others.

Always separate out the hurt chick and definitely cover the wound/s with the blue kote before putting back in with the others.

And my plucker is at it starting first thing in the morning and even when they are out free ranging, which is most of the day, fwiw. A covering won't work for us because it's already been in the mid-80s the last few days and really, it's easier to deal with the sole remaining offender..............

You can also try upping the protein for all of them, too; if they are eating the feathers, some say it's an indication of deficiency. Others say it's just boredom from being too crowded. In our case, it was just bad habit that we still can't fix with the one remaining, although she doesn't pluck herself, only others. And she goes after everyone, except for the flock mistress.

Fwiw. Good luck!

 

[Glasshen]

I had trouble too, and rehomed the ring leader. Also started serving a hamburger all cut up and served on two plates for a snack in the afternoon, so everybody will get some. Things seem much better.

 

[macliff]

I have thought about trying the pinless peepers but it seems like a pain to have to put these on. Do you really need the special pliers and from what I see on line you need to by them by the 100s. Seems kind of pricey?? But is it worth is?

 

[Tikkijane]

We didn't use pliers, but you do need to get the warm enough to be slightly bent. http://www.randallburkey.com/Pin-Less-Peepers-100-Pkg/productinfo/10097/ is where we got ours. I figure I'll never have to buy them again.

You can buy them there for $7 for 10 if you don't want 100...http://www.randallburkey.com/Blinders-Debeakers/products/78/

This worked best for us with two people- I held and my 13 yr old dd put them in, although I've heard of folks being able to do this by themselves with ease. I think that's just a matter of practice..... Once we had it sorted out, it took more time to collect the chicken than it did to get them in.

We tried everything else; these absolutely helped. I still have issues with the one continuing to pluck despite her peepers, but it's way better to have just one compared to many, imo.

Good luck!

 

[ImAnewbie4]

I just wanted to see how your girl healed up.. What things worked that you found to help her heal better?

One of mine got pecked apart pretty bad yesterday to the point my husband thought she probably wouldn't make it. We have her in a new dog crate and cleaned her wounds with saline and sprayed with the medicine from tractor supply. Today she is one her feet, eating some (yogurt and treat scratch) and drinking. I'm hoping this is a really good sign but her back end is still awful looking.

What other kind of proteins should be fed to her?