Chickens pecking at each other

[Le Coop]

I think I understand this is normal, it's just what they do. However I am curious if anyone does anything to prevent it? I think I saw in Murdochs the other day some spray to use to prevent or try to make them stop pecking each other and making them bald? I have 5 in a pretty big pen/coop and I am noticing one who does the pecking and the other 4 have feathers missing.

Most of you will probably say, it it is what it is... but I am curious to hear if others do anything to stop it and what that is you do?

 

[sourland]

There is a device, Pinless Peepers, which can be put on the bird doing the pecking. This will allow the other birds to regrow their feathers.

 

[Le Coop]

Oh my word those are funny looking. Well good to know there is something in case I want to try it out.

 

[donrae]

One bird pecking the others until they have feathers missing is not normal. Common causes are crowding, boredom or too low protein. So, how much space do you have? What do you feed your birds? Maybe try boosting protein with some cooked eggs, catfood, tuna, etc. Put something new in the run to turn their interest from each other. Even something like a rubbermaid tub on it's side can provide a lot for a group of birds to "talk" about, plus it can break line of sight from the picker to it's vicim, often that itself can help the pecking. There are ideas on here for "boredom busters" for confined birds, take a look in the feeding your flock section. Or you may have to remove the aggressor for a week or so, see if that kind of resets the social/behavioral order in your flock.

 

[Le Coop]

I would say it could certainly be boredom. I think they have plenty of room. They are in a 12x12 pen. But it is a bit boring. I will have to make things a little more fun.

I feed them layer feed, scratch and random things from the house. Depends on what I have. I will look at adding some protein. They do get yogurt/cheese so I would think there is some in that. However it's once a week or so.

Thanks for the suggestions.