Chicken getting Pecked Raw! Help!!

[Chlo's chickens!!]

Take your tape measure out there Width Length Height.

Here are some pics of run, coop/roosting, and the chicken. It is 3 1/2 feet wide, 15 feet long, and 10 feet of it is 3 1/2 tall and the other 5 feet is 5 feet tall.

 

[BYC910]

Feather picking going on. Lowest in the pecking order. Separation is a must once they draw blood it's all over. The cage in the coop separation method aart posted is the best way . Its keeps them in the flock but protected . Lots of good replies here hanging treats is good . I've heard hanging salt meat in the coop for them to peck at will help too never used it . Free ranging birds most of the time don't have that problem . Chickens can be brutal you just have watch for early signs . Sometimes feather picking can't be stopped once started the flock will simply move on the next weakest one .Good luck hope you can get it worked out .

 

[Chlo's chickens!!]

The pic of the chicken is the underneath of it. Does anyone know of any things I can put on it that would help??

 

[coach723]

Space is your issue. I would look into expanding your outside run area as much as you can. They need to be able to get away from each other when needed. I don't see any roosts inside the coop? They are all bedding in the straw? I would try to add at least a couple of roosting bars inside the coop, sturdy branches will work, or 2/3's. You can do a search for roosting bar ideas and come up with a lot of different options.
I would do as aart said and separate her until she is healed enough to not attract pecking.
If there is open wound I'd use veterycin spray or plain neosporin on it to get it healing. If it's just bare and red you can try using blue-kote the hide the red. I'm not a fan of blue-kote as I usually end up with more on me than on them, but it can work in the right circumstances. But until the space is addressed you are likely to have more of this happening.

 

[Chlo's chickens!!]

Space is your issue. I would look into expanding your outside run area as much as you can. They need to be able to get away from each other when needed. I don't see any roosts inside the coop? They are all bedding in the straw? I would try to add at least a couple of roosting bars inside the coop, sturdy branches will work, or 2/3's. You can do a search for roosting bar ideas and come up with a lot of different options.
I would do as aart said and separate her until she is healed enough to not attract pecking.
If there is open wound I'd use veterycin spray or plain neosporin on it to get it healing. If it's just bare and red you can try using blue-kote the hide the red. I'm not a fan of blue-kote as I usually end up with more on me than on them, but it can work in the right circumstances. But until the space is addressed you are likely to have more of this happening.

Thank you so much!! There is two roosting bars, the are just covered right now. We ordered some blue-kote, so I hope that helps.

 

[Chlo's chickens!!]

Does anyone have good ideas on how I could icolate her with my type of setup?

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Space is your issue. I would look into expanding your outside run area as much as you can. They need to be able to get away from each other when needed. I don't see any roosts inside the coop? They are all bedding in the straw? I would try to add at least a couple of roosting bars inside the coop, sturdy branches will work, or 2/3's. You can do a search for roosting bar ideas and come up with a lot of different options.
I would do as aart said and separate her until she is healed enough to not attract pecking.
If there is open wound I'd use veterycin spray or plain neosporin on it to get it healing. If it's just bare and red you can try using blue-kote the hide the red. I'm not a fan of blue-kote as I usually end up with more on me than on them, but it can work in the right circumstances. But until the space is addressed you are likely to have more of this happening.

X2

Blu Kote should help to hide the redness and "hopefully" discourage picking a little. But space, imho, is your biggest problem.

These sweet girls can become nasty/cranky quickly when cooped up too tightly.

Does anyone have good ideas on how I could icolate her with my type of setup?

@Chlo's chickens!! giving your general location helps with this question. If you are in the US, then most likely you have cold weather right now - you would want to definitely place her out of the wind and elements. Separating her out completely would not be a good idea (to me) since integration can be difficult even when weather is favorable and there is plenty of space. Ideally she should be caged/kenneled inside the coop and/or run to heal, unless you have one specific hen that is doing all the picking - then she would go to jail.

 

[Chlo's chickens!!]

X2

Blu Kote should help to hide the redness and "hopefully" discourage picking a little. But space, imho, is your biggest problem.

These sweet girls can become nasty/cranky quickly when cooped up too tightly.


@Chlo's chickens!! giving your general location helps with this question. If you are in the US, then most likely you have cold weather right now - you would want to definitely place her out of the wind and elements. Separating her out completely would not be a good idea (to me) since integration can be difficult even when weather is favorable and there is plenty of space. Ideally she should be caged/kenneled inside the coop and/or run to heal, unless you have one specific hen that is doing all the picking - then she would go to jail.

Thank you!! I do not know wich one is doing the pecking!! I will try the blue-kote!!

 

[thytay&chickenmomma]

Just want to share my experience. I had a HUGE feather pecking issue with my chickens. I started with 24 chickens, hand raised them all from couple day old chicks. It started with small featherless places on just 1 or 2 chickens. Never had an issue until they started laying eggs. Because these were my 1st chickens, I had no clue what was happening. But within a matter of days, while trying to figure out what was going on, it went from featherless places into bloody injuries on numerous chickens. I sat for hours and watched and finally seen the several chickens pecking. It seemed when the main hen started the pecking, other chickens picked up the bad habit too. I ended up having chickens separated everywhere in temporary coops I had to build due to bloody injuries, it was so very stressful! I posted about my issue here on BYC and I tried every single suggestion I was given. My coop was big enough, tried adding more protein, I tried boredom busters, flock blocks, blu kote which in my case made it worse, I tried pick-no-more, and nothing worked. I made chicken saddles and they helped but only for the back areas not for under vent and etc. I ended up sadly getting rid of all my chickens but 10, it just became too stressful and too much for me to handle on my own and I could not stop the feather picking. Then, out of the 10 I had, all was good until the boss hen started feather picking the chicken at the bottom of the pecking order, seemed out of 8 nest boxes they liked the same nest box and started it. I have a camera installed to keep an eye on the chickens now and that is how I knew who started it. By the next day 2 others started pecking feathers too, the fluffy vent feathers. Chickens learn bad habits easily from other chickens. I was disheartened thinking I would end up having to just get rid of all my chickens if it did not stop. Then in my desperate search again for ANYTHING to stop this, I came across an article on chicken peepers, never came across anything about them when it started the 1st time. I was willing to try anything at this point. I felt so guilty putting them on my chickens, but it was a last resort for me, and they have been WONDERFUL!!! They still peck on each other at times, but it is not picking feathers intentionally like what they were doing before. My chickens liked to peck around the vent area, the fluffy feathers, and ANY molting feathers they'd pick until bloody. The peepers have made a HUGE difference and pretty much stopped the feather picking. I can tell you from my experience, any chicken with any injury will need to be separated. I was told when 1st dealing with this, that the featherless spots were okay and the chickens did not need separating unless bloody. But the chickens all were drawn to the featherless spots and it took nothing to make bloody wounds of them quick. Chickens will just pick and pick and pick. I use a large animal crate I got at Tractor Supply cheap and keep chickens in them inside the coop when I need to separate any of the 10 chickens. Was not that easy when I had 24! I am still new to having chickens and still learning as I go, but just want to share my experience with feather picking. I wish I had learned about the chicken peepers sooner.

 

[Chlo's chickens!!]

Just want to share my experience. I had a HUGE feather pecking issue with my chickens. I started with 24 chickens, hand raised them all from couple day old chicks. It started with small featherless places on just 1 or 2 chickens. Never had an issue until they started laying eggs. Because these were my 1st chickens, I had no clue what was happening. But within a matter of days, while trying to figure out what was going on, it went from featherless places into bloody injuries on numerous chickens. I sat for hours and watched and finally seen the several chickens pecking. It seemed when the main hen started the pecking, other chickens picked up the bad habit too. I ended up having chickens separated everywhere in temporary coops I had to build due to bloody injuries, it was so very stressful! I posted about my issue here on BYC and I tried every single suggestion I was given. My coop was big enough, tried adding more protein, I tried boredom busters, flock blocks, blu kote which in my case made it worse, I tried pick-no-more, and nothing worked. I made chicken saddles and they helped but only for the back areas not for under vent and etc. I ended up sadly getting rid of all my chickens but 10, it just became too stressful and too much for me to handle on my own and I could not stop the feather picking. Then, out of the 10 I had, all was good until the boss hen started feather picking the chicken at the bottom of the pecking order, seemed out of 8 nest boxes they liked the same nest box and started it. I have a camera installed to keep an eye on the chickens now and that is how I knew who started it. By the next day 2 others started pecking feathers too, the fluffy vent feathers. Chickens learn bad habits easily from other chickens. I was disheartened thinking I would end up having to just get rid of all my chickens if it did not stop. Then in my desperate search again for ANYTHING to stop this, I came across an article on chicken peepers, never came across anything about them when it started the 1st time. I was willing to try anything at this point. I felt so guilty putting them on my chickens, but it was a last resort for me, and they have been WONDERFUL!!! They still peck on each other at times, but it is not picking feathers intentionally like what they were doing before. My chickens liked to peck around the vent area, the fluffy feathers, and ANY molting feathers they'd pick until bloody. The peepers have made a HUGE difference and pretty much stopped the feather picking. I can tell you from my experience, any chicken with any injury will need to be separated. I was told when 1st dealing with this, that the featherless spots were okay and the chickens did not need separating unless bloody. But the chickens all were drawn to the featherless spots and it took nothing to make bloody wounds of them quick. Chickens will just pick and pick and pick. I use a large animal crate I got at Tractor Supply cheap and keep chickens in them inside the coop when I need to separate any of the 10 chickens. Was not that easy when I had 24! I am still new to having chickens and still learning as I go, but just want to share my experience with feather picking. I wish I had learned about the chicken peepers sooner.

Thank you so much for the information! Souds just like my situation!! (but with much less birds)!! Can you give me a little more information about the chicken peepers? If that will help, I might want to try it!