Eating eachother alive

[Baylee_baby_]

Really thinking about just switching over to ducks after this. I have 4 hens that get plenty of live bugs (I buy live black soldier fly larvae), I buy the best feed, they get all the scraps from our meals, and they have an entire acre of grass just to themselves. However they're eating each other alive. Every single one has feathers missing they were picking on the smallest so bad I had to get her a saddle, but then she started going after the largest girl my lavender Orpington. I caught one hen in the act of pecking another, but she also has feathers missing on her back, so all of them must be bullying each other. I'm not totally sure how to or if I even can correct this behavior... Any advice? I'll literally take anything.

 

[Saveria]

So sorry, instead of giving you answers I am going to pepper you with questions. What kind of food are they eating? How many birds have you seen feather pulling? Are they allowed to free range whenever they are awake? If not, what size is their coop? Do you have a rooster?

I had some success with pinless peepers, but my problem hen eventually found their way around it. I also was confused because some of the hens were losing feathers to depluming mites, and not being feather pulled as bad as I thought.

 

[nuthatched]

Cut out the meal scraps. What type of feed is it? What protein? How much space do they have?

 

[Baylee_baby_]

So sorry, instead of giving you answers I am going to pepper you with questions. What kind of food are they eating? How many birds have you seen feather pulling? Are they allowed to free range whenever they are awake? If not, what size is their coop? Do you have a rooster?

I had some success with pinless peepers, but my problem hen eventually found their way around it. I also was confused because some of the hens were losing feathers to depluming mites, and not being feather pulled as bad as I thought.

They eat Nutrena Nature Wise Hearty Hen Layer feed. They have free access to their feed, oyster shells, and grit. I've seen 2 do feather pulling (The one with the saddle, and the blackest one in the pics), but those two also have feathers plucked. They free range from sun up until sun down. They also have a 4×8 coop for the 4 of them, the roost plank runs across the 8ft end so plenty of room, but they like to stick together and don't even use half the plank at night. Used to have a rooster, but he just dropped dead last year though I thought it might be mites or lice, but I deep cleaned their coop, and treated the coop along with the hens for a few weeks. Also sprinkled diatamatois earth all over the yard where they dust bathed. It didn't help though and I didn't find anything pest wise in the coop.

 

[Baylee_baby_]

Cut out the meal scraps. What type of feed is it? What protein? How much space do they have?

They eat Nurtina Nature Wise Hearty Hen Layer feed. The feed says it has 18% protein, and they also get live black soldier flies, along with live feeder crickets. They have a 4×8 coop and then they free range on an acre of grass from sun up until sun down.

 

[nuthatched]

They eat Nurtina Nature Wise Hearty Hen Layer feed. The feed says it has 18% protein, and they also get live black soldier flies, along with live feeder crickets. They have a 4×8 coop and then they free range on an acre of grass from sun up until sun down.

Cut out all the treats for now.
How big is their coop?
Try keeping them in so they can eat more of their pellets.

 

[Saveria]

Sorry about your rooster. Mine actually didn't fix the problem, but he was just the main target.

I thought it might be mites or lice

If you give everyone an examination you should be able to rule this out. Looking in the coop can help with some species of mites, but most critters don't leave signs in the area. Just pick up each hen and start looking in the feathers around the vent. You would see tufts of eggs at the base of the feathers for some species, or living bodies. You can also check under the wings and neck feathers.

You can also also switch to a higher protein feed and see if that helps.