chick pecking :rooster booster vs. pine tar

[chrissyr]

I have these almost 2 week old chicks (marans) and they are starting to peck the new feathers. they are in an
8x8 coup, with a 250w heat lamp that they can get close or far away from. plenty of room, feed and waterers. I put Blu-cote (sp?) on them and under the light it seem to make it worse. even though it's a red light, made the blu-cote look like blood. I put on neosporin and they started preening the heck out of themselves to get it off and made it worse.
so my next option is : rooster booster no peck solution OR pine tar. Not sure which is better and I'm done buying every option out there. Can I get opinions please? Raised some hybrids in the same coup/condition last fall and had NO problem like this. I think the marans are just a more aggressive breed and starting trouble. Also, they have a red 250w heat bulb , I thought that was supposed to make everything look red to prevent this. The light its giving out is actually not really red at all.
thanks in advance

 

[peterjarmo]

I'm going through a similar issue, with 5mo. old pullets. Although its just one hen getting the occasional peck on the rear; it has caused some bleeding quils though... I tried the blu kote and it seems to be working for now. Maybe you should switch out the bulbs to just some normal white light bulbs and then the blu kote will look very blu/purple to them instead of everything just being red; at that point they may just be working off smell and pecking anywhere they smell blood.
Also I hear you need to apply the blu kote daily.
My next step is pine tar or the rooster booster peck no more, but for now I think the blu kote is working.

 

[chrissyr]

Hi Peterjarmo, So here is what I ended up at: The Blu Kote with the red light was horrible! I tried a white light, but didn't see much of a difference. I bought the pine tar, and each chick would preen the bejeebers out of himself and take it off. usually making himself worse. The rooster booster worked well for me. I think it depends on the birds, some people liked the products that I didn't. But that stopped it well for me, did have to re-apply every few days though. Also, when the weather started warming, the light wasn't on as much. I have 19 peeps with and 8x8 room, but perhaps a second light would have given them more space to roam. I think they were huddled and started noticing those nice blood filled feather shafts on each other. Now they are fully feathered and have an outside run too, so no issues. Now just got to re-home the 8-10 cockerels i got in the batch so I don't have more issues later. Thank you so much for your input! I'm glad the blu kote is working for you. I appreciate you sharing your experience. It all helps when we think together

 

[peterjarmo]

Cool, well good to know the rooster booster worked well. I may just pick up a bottle of that to have around just in case it comes down to it. I've also heard the blu kote is pretty carcinogenic if introduced to humans; not even sure if you are really supposed to eat the chicken after spraying it. So an alternative to the blu kote sounds better and better...