feather eating addiction!

[Aunt Mildred]

We have four hens in an 8x12 closed chicken run. All four of them have lived together for about a year with no problems. In January, we had a blizzard that kept the hens "cooped" up for a couple of days. My husband was out of town and I"m pregnant and couldn't shovel out the snow. Even though I continued to feed and water them inside of their coop house, I think they got a little bored and started picking on each other's feathers a bit. Blue Baby and White Baby are both Americauna mixes, Aunt Dooney is a Cookoo Maran, and Aunt Inez is some mutt that looks like a lot like a black langshire. The two Americaunas are a year younger, and a little smaller, and Blue Baby looked like she was getting picked on the most with a lot of her back feathers towards the tail missing. But all of them had their fluffy butt feathers picked on. Since then, they've had some time to free range in the back yard to get some more space from each other, and we've increased their protein with calf manna, mealworms, and scrambled eggs. Even though it's been a couple of months, their feathers still haven't grown back in well because White Baby - the other Americauna will not stop pulling them out to eat them. They're back in the run because we put in our garden and they are HUGE pothole diggers, but I don't know if we need to isolate the instigator or not. The others seem to have stopped picking with the protein boost, but White Baby seems to have an addiction and will just follow the girls around, wait for them to put their rumps in the air, and then she goes in for the steal! The strange thing is that we haven't noticed any skin picking - there are no scabs or bloody spots - just plucked butts. We have bluekote but are a little worried to spray across their vents, not to mention that since they're healthy, they're hard to catch. Do you think that would be our best bet though? Also, the pen in large enough to section of White Baby by herself, and she would still have a small covered nestbox on her side. But the one time we tried that, she freaked out to not be with the rest of the girls. Any suggestions? Like I said, I don't think it's a life or death matter right now, but we just want to break the habit before it turns into something worse, and don't know what to do! Help!

 

[Judy]

I'd attack it before it gets worse, for sure. Just read a post by an experienced keeper who has tried everything and can't get it broken. Like cannibalism and egg eating, I think this can become an ingrained habit.

I'd lock up the bully for a week and let her freak. Honestly, if that didn't work, I'd get rid of her.

I don't think BluKote will do anything much for this. It seems to be more useful for masking blood, and of course it's a wound antiseptic, but as you said, the problem isn't wounds.

 

[blondie26]

I am going through that myself - I had to get rid of the hen who ate all of Henley's butt feathers!!! There were scabs!! I got a new hen, Edith and the very first day, SHE started in on Henley's heiny! Not viciously, but a peck nonetheless. At least Edith did it in front of me as the other hen did it secretly. Never saw her in action.

I tried every remedy online to stop the pecking and nothing worked except separation. Peck-No-More, Blue Kote, Vicks Vapor Rub, Baby powder - nothing worked.

Henley now has feathers coming back. So it didn't matter that I got rid of the feather eater, the new hen saw that weird butt and went for it too! I think I have another month to go and Henley will be fine to spend the day out with Edith.

 

[Yay Chicks!]

Having the same issue. After about a year of living together in harmony, my Buff Orp has turned my Barred Rock into a Turken. I isolated the BO for a few days, and she slowed down somewhat upon return, but she's still doing it. I slather up the BR (who now hates me) with that Rooster Booster no pick stuff, to discourage picking, but I have to reapply often. Poor BR looks awful with all her neck feathers gone (down to the breastbone!).