feather eating chickens

[BarredRockMom]

Thanks, I'm leaning towards building an A-Frame chicken run for next winter.

My chicken house is a large (12x12x16) A-frame & so is the attached yard. We have 5 hens & the most we've ever had was 8. So everyone has more than enough room!

 

[gtaus]

My chicken house is a large (12x12x16) A-frame & so is the attached yard. We have 5 hens & the most we've ever had was 8. So everyone has more than enough room!

Wow, that sounds like a big A-Frame coop. Do you have pictures of your setup?

I guess I should have made my question more clear, I was asking OP @Chickensbytheyard how big their coop/run was and how many chickens were in that space to see if maybe the housing was a bit small for the number of chickens. Just one thing to consider when chickens are pulling feathers.

 

[Acre4Me]

Thank you for all your information. I had read never to feed chickens meat. What is turkey starter? I will give them some scrambled eggs and dry cat food. Let me know about this meat thing.

Chickens are omnivores. They can also be cannibals. They definitely eat meat. It would be ok to supplement with some animal protein. Some dry cat food contains animal protein, so that would be an easy way to include animal protein. Use dry cat food-it is quite a bit higher in protein than wet. But, it needs to be crushed or moistened for the chickens to easily eat it. Some one else on BYC indicated catfish pellets - for feeding catfish in a stocked pond- are a common supplement for their flock, but I am not familiar with that item.

 

[Acre4Me]

Thank you for all your information. I had read never to feed chickens meat. What is turkey starter? I will give them some scrambled eggs and dry cat food. Let me know about this meat thing.

turkey starter is a crumble feed for turkey poults. It is readily available/very common. The game bird feed is less common, but I’m able to source gamebird feed at a few feed stores. Turkey starter is available at all feed stores in my area.

 

[so lucky]

My chickens don't pick at each other to eat the feathers, but I have seen them eat feathers that have fallen or been pulled out earlier. I agree that chickens need animal protein. I give mine meat scraps, chicken and turkey carcass after I picked the meat off, scrambled eggs when they are little, cheese, left over casseroles, you name it. Not a lot at one time, but just about anything.
Also, as said earlier, if the OP could tell us how many chickens they have in that coop, it might help nail down the cause for the feather eating.