chicken's pecking getting worse!

[sotelomary]

I have a GLW that started picking off feathers and eating them on 3 of my hens. On one she is picking them off her butt and it is now a bald spot. On another she has started picking around her neck and the front of the neck is now all bare of feathers. On the other hen she started pecking around her neck but has done only very little damage.

I first started noticing this when I had to cut back on their free ranging. I live in the city and have a daycare so I had to hose everything off every day. My water bill went way up and I cut back. We are trying to fence a run for them in the meantime.

To make matters worse, I've noticed that the hen with the neck that is bald has also started pecking the others. I have tried to "shooed" her away when I see this. I don't know if she also eats the feathers.

I was told at the feed store to put an ointment (I think it's called Rooster's Booster's) on the bald spots but I'm not sure if this is working.

Please help. What can I do to stop this behavior?

(p.s. They are on layer crumbles, get greens and alittle scratch daily.)

 

[highcountrychickens]

Oh dear dear dear...

Sadly, this is a tough problem (see my page... much humor is dedicated to the issue) Because your picking problem is fairly advanced, I would go straight to peepers - Randall Burkey carries the pinless versions - they make it so they can't see straight ahead, though it doesn't affect their eating, drinking, and inexplicably, flying to perches - but because they can't target feathers, the picking stops, and the behavior pattern is broken.

You can try boosting their protein, adding things like hanging cabbage for them, and any number of things including the rooster booster pick no more, all of which I found to be mostly ineffective. You're right that it may have started because of confinement, and I hate to say it but it won't go away on it's own, and will invariably get worse (shooing won't do much)

Good luck, and go have a giggle at my byc page - I've been there!!!

 

[sotelomary]

Highcountrychickens....Thank you for your understanding words. I had posted this earlier and didn't get much of a response. Your support is appreciated. My husband who doesn't understand chickens just keeps asking me what I'll do if the problem gets worse. I know he's hinted if I would get rid of the culprit. Well, I can't! I love and enjoy all of them.

I will check Randall Burkey for that peeper.

Thank so much,
Mary

 

[horsejody]

Give them a little dry cat food as a treat to supplement any lack of protein in their diet. Also, consider that they are bored. Give them something to do. Maybe you can hang a cabbage on a rope for them to pick at all day.

 

[toletiquesbysam]

I rehomed my feather pickers!! The feathers are growing back in and I hope in a few weeks we'll have a normal looking flock again!!
I would not hesitate to rehome another chicken to spare the others of this happening to them, it's not pretty to look at for us, but it also is uncomfortable for the chickens! If you don't want to rehome the bad chickens, then consider the aprons that a fellow BYC'r sells if the ointment does not work. Sorry wish it was better, the confinement caused it in our case as well, they get plenty of protein.

 

[rancher hicks]

Am reading this anyone else have this problem? What did you do? I have one hen who is pretty bad and not sure if its picking for the roo as a number of certain breeds look bare on their backs. Do mixed flocks have this probem more? This Aussie sits high on the roost latter which I thought meant she was high on the pecking order. Do birds who all sit on a level roost have less of this problem? Oh and a friend sent me to a site that uses "duct tape" as an apron.

 

[sotelomary]

I've ordered the peeper from Randall Burkey, and will get some dry cat food this weekend. We have also set up a temporary fenced area so I've been able to free range them for most of the day. I am putting the Rooster Booster once a day and I think it might be working since I don't see the bald areas increasing. I probably should put it on twice a day but it's kind of hard since I have to do it by myself.

I really don't want to rehome if at all possible. For now, the problem does not seem to be getting worse. So that's good news. I will be changing their feed to pellets and a diffrent brand this weekend. I haven't checked the label to see if it has more protein than the crumbles.

Wish me luck,
Mary

 

[Hozer]

I have a really bad feather picking problem with my birds also.

I think it started with my wife feeding them too much bread and pizza....that's OK becasue she didn't want chickens in the first place and now she is feeding them left over pizza from work and even mucking out their run. Funny how their status went up when they started laying.

I am currently mixing layer pellets with 20% protein turkey grower at a 50/50 ratio with free choice oyster shell avaiable. I researched it here and many people do something similar. My opinion is layer pellets are kinda "industrial"...more like the mimimum necessary to get eggs out of chickens. They say the increased protein also increases egg production....as for the feather picking, it does not seem to help. I also suppliment with dry cat food.

I have tried rooster booster "pick no more" and blue coat. They seem to wear off too soon (same day). I just ordered pinless peepers. It seems once they start picking, it becomes a habit.

 

[Kerrichka]

Hello! I had a horrible feather picking problem with my brood last year, starting with springtime. They were getting picked right above their tails, on their backs. We tried Rooster booster, Blu Kote, flock blocks, black oil sunflower seeds for more protein, and some other blue spray, etc., etc. with no effect. My 6 chickens have full run of about 1/4-1/3rd of an acre, with trees to rest under and full access to their henhouse (which is always kept clean), lots of grass and bugs, so I don't think they're bored.

After much research, and because I didn't want to get rid of the presumed culpit (the GLW with perfect plumage!), I happened upon a couple sites which sold (or posted patterns to make) hen 'saddles' or 'aprons'. I think the primary purpose of these is to protect the hens from mounting roosters. Well, I surmised that if the saddles covered the area of the back where they were mostly getting picked, then perhaps 'out of site, out of mind'. We quarantined 'Golda', who we thought was the one doing the picking, for about 3-4 weeks. In the meantime I constructed these saddles to put on the other chickens. It took a couple different versions of the pattern to find one that would fit our chickens, and that they would keep on (for the most part). After the 3-4 weeks was up, and I saw new feathers growing in on the other chickens, we let 'Golda' back in with the flock. We also had obtained a rooster to hopefully distract the hen(s) from their undesireable habit.

I have heard that you can't break a picker from her habit. Now I don't swear that the problem is 100% over, but I can tell you that all my other chickens have their feathers back (except for one, who I think has a different issue going on). I do see some of those 'down' feathers starting to show by the base of their tails, so will make sure to put the saddles back on everyone (as they only keep them on for about a week, then they somehow take them off!) Everyone seems happy, though, and everyone is laying, so I suppose I have no reason at the moment to consider getting rid of Golda. Not sure if the rooster is helping the issue or not, but now we have him to contend with while out in the back yard! Good thing he's beautiful or he'd have been in the stewing pot long ago (just kidding!)

Perhaps the saddle idea is one that might help a bit in hiding and protecting the bare skin on top of the tail area, to keep other hens from seeing those tasty pin-feathers growing in.

For what it's worth!...

Carrie in Washington state