chicken being pecked on

[Team01]

Hello: I have to chickens that are being pecked on. All there feathers on there back and neck are pecked off. What would cause this. All the other chickens are fine. Please help

 

[PrettyCoolChicks]

Can you install a camera to see what happens? Sharing photos might help too!

Are they laying eggs? If not, are those two chicken maybe just molting? This can happen as part of their naturally replacing feathers. Often feathers are replaced gradually but a hard molt will leave them with naked patches.

You can give your chicken extra proteins to help them regrow their feathers - scrambled eggs can be good.

A bully could do that too if the chicken don't have enough space for example, which watching them closely could help identify.

 

[Debbie292d]

Hi,

The two most common reasons for chickens pecking are low protein and overcrowding.

Chickens need 4 square feet per chicken in the coop, and 15 square feet in their run if they have one.

As for possible low protein issues, you may want to switch to a higher protein feed. An all-flock type is usually around 20% protein vs. layer usually around 16%. If you use all-flock, that's lower calcium so if you don't already have a dish of oyster shell out for them, you'll need to do this for sure.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

What are you feeding? If they are molting and you are feeding 16% layer feed, it would help to switch to a 20% "feather fixer" or all-flock formula. Even a starter or grower formula would probably have higher protein than layer. If you have layers, provide calcium in the form of crushed oyster shell in a separate vessel.

 

[Team01]

What are you feeding? If they are molting and you are feeding 16% layer feed, it would help to switch to a 20% "feather fixer" or all-flock formula. Even a starter or grower formula would probably have higher protein than layer. If you have layers, provide calcium in the form of crushed oyster shell in a separate vessel.

They are getting feed that is 20% . I forgot to say that the two chickens are in two different pens. One in each pen. Its only the two chickens that are being pecked on and they are almost bald on the neck and back.They also oyster shell in a different feeder