Chicken Eating Feathers — Plucking Chickens Bare

[Nutmeg15]

Pumpkin, my Buff Orpington, has started picking out and eating the feathers of my two Dark Brahmas. I only noticed this behavior actively about a week ago—she had always shown some interest in pecking at their foot feathers, but I had never seen her actually pulling out feathers and eating them until recently. Clover, the Brahma missing the most feathers, is bald on her back and sides under her wings, as well as around her vent area. We originally thought it was depluming mites, and had her treated by a vet. The bareness grew, however, and finally I saw Pumpkin coming around to both of my Brahmas and eating their feathers as they dustbathed. She hasn’t done this to any of my other hens as far as I can tell, and so far she’s the only one who I’ve seen pecking the Brahmas. My hens have plenty of space and free range almost every day, and I supply them with treats daily so they won’t be bored. It seems like the behavior has only gotten worse, and I need advice as to what can be done to stop this and prevent both my Brahmas from being injured. I am currently making a hen apron for Clover and looking for a good high-protein feed for them in case that is the source of the behavior. I am at a loss. Does anyone else have experience with this?

 

[Nutmeg15]

I have also tried the pick-no-more liquid, but so far that doesn’t seem to have deterred Pumpkin from pecking.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

Picking and eating feathers is a sign of protein starvation. What rations do you have your hens on? Try feeding each hen a heaping teaspoon or so of canned dog food every day and I highly suspect that this behavior will stop.

 

[Folly's place]

x2. What are you feeding? It can be bad behavior, but often is either diet or crowding.
Mary

 

[Nutmeg15]

Picking and eating feathers is a sign of protein starvation. What rations do you have your hens on? Try feeding each hen a heaping teaspoon or so of canned dog food every day and I highly suspect that this behavior will stop.

x2. What are you feeding? It can be bad behavior, but often is either diet or crowding.
Mary

We buy our food from a local farmer who mixes it himself, it was recommended to us by a breeder who sold us our original batch of chickens 3 years ago. It is formulated for layer hens. Our chickens have never seemed to have a problem with it before, but this may be the exception. What brand of food do you recommend? I am going to replace their feed with higher protein food to see if that will fix the problem.

I don’t believe crowding is an issue, as each hen has plenty of square footage to roam in and there are many roosts/platforms/hideaways within their coop. They also freerange on our farm quite frequently. It seems like diet is probably the likeliest cause, as Pumpkin has never exhibited this kind of behavior before.

 

[Ponyfeather]

I second that it could be diet, though it could just be some serious bullying by Pumpkin trying to stay dominant over those two other hens. The only way I ever treated this was when my hen Dot was being bullied out at where we board our horses at a friends house. Dot was 100% bare bottomed other than a few tail feathers and I finally said I would take her home since I had extra space since we'd lost a hen. Since she couldn't be kept isolated from bullying. But it was multiple hens bullying her.

Good luck with Pumpkin. But it sounds like she might need more protein then is in the typical feed which is 16%. If you can find higher protein feed that might help. You could even if she allows handling take her away from the flock feed her some dried mealworms and see if that helps. I know I have heard dual purpose heritage birds need higher protein, I always fed https://www.nutrenaworld.com/product/country-feeds-egg-producer

When I had two Wyndottos in my flock to make sure they got enough protein.

 

[Stacyoung13]

I have 3 two month old reds that are doing the same thing to my two month old silver. They have pretty much plucked her butt raw, she has a couple tail feathers left and a few fluffy feathers. I had to separate her from them, they were pecking her blood raw. They grew up together from day one, and just started the pecking about 3 days ago.

 

[Folly's place]

I feed Flock Raiser, 20% protein, to everyone, with oyster shell on the side. That works for birds of all ages and sexes, laying or not. I'm not a fan of the 16% layer type diets, I think that they aren't adequate for most birds in our free ranging flocks.
Some birds just decide to be bullies and can kill flockmates by this pecking, if it gets out of hand. It can also happen if a bird is ill, and the others pick on her. Managing the group can take effort on our parts, to have a pleasant group with less drama.
Mary

 

[Ponyfeather]

I have 3 two month old reds that are doing the same thing to my two month old silver. They have pretty much plucked her butt raw, she has a couple tail feathers left and a few fluffy feathers. I had to separate her from them, they were pecking her blood raw. They grew up together from day one, and just started the pecking about 3 days ago.

I think that those two are buddied up and just see the third as an easy target if you can, get the silver a buddy the same age an isolate them together so they can bond. Then maybe you can introduce them back to the reds. Chickens are weird and will buddy up and not accept others into their flock. I have three chickens and two are very bonded but the third is kind of on the out skirts of the other two, but she is the dominant hen. So we don't have feather ripping.

 

[Hensndoes]

I have only had chickens for 3 years but this is the time of the year this issue springs up for me every year. I learned last year and switched to higher protein feed. I don't treat them until summer except for tuna or kale. And even that is very small portion maybe once a week for now. Hope you get them sorted out!