Feather eating!! HELP

[Mesa]

How can I stop this behavior? My BC Marans are eating the tail feathers out of the roos. I just caught them doing it today, who knows how long they've been doing this. I just thought one of my roos was a late bloomer since he doesnt have a tail at all.
All the birds would chase the one that pulled the tailed feather out, blood was on several chickens as they fought over the feather. Then they'd start looking at the roos for more tail feathers to eat. I saw 3 hens going after the roos.
Help, what do I do?

 

[ruth]

Normally feather picking is either a confinement issue related to boredom and/or a vitamin deficiency (protein) related to diet. They especially need meat protein.

What are you feeding them? How are they confined? Do they ever get to free range?

Mine all free range but I still feed them a mixture of layer crumbles; black oil sunflower seeds; game bird feed (really high protein 28%) and scratch and grains. That's on top of all table scraps, diced up lunch meat and everything from my garden like peelings and veggies (all diced up). I also boil up a few dozen eggs and then mash them all up peelings and all and feed them back to the chickens who get all the bugs and natural feed they can scratch up around the farm and in the woods.

Needless to say - I've never had feather picking or cannibalism - I've also never had any fighting or disease and most people, including you, will tell me that my eggs produce the best hatch of the biggest healthiest chicks they've ever seen. Since your birds came from my flock I know they know better. Try nipping this in the bud by giving them more food and more freedom (if possible).

 

[Mesa]

They usually free range every other day, or at least once a week. There are 8 hens (4 are my "old" hatchery mutt hens, they arent feather plucking but they will go after the bloody feathers) and 2 roos. The coop is 8 by 8, and the run is 12 by 40.

I'm feeding them Layer crumbles, oyster shell (they dont eat) and i just started throwing corn around their coop for boredom.

I just noticed this problem problem this evening after pm'ing you about my roosters. i dont know how long they've been doing it but my guess is quite a while since 3 of the hens are stalking the roosters tails.
Will they stop if I feed them more protein... like game bird feed? Or is this a bad habit thats difficult to break?

 

[ruth]

As I mentioned, I don't have any first hand experience, just what I've read. And from what I've read once this behavior starts it can be hard to break because as you saw, once they draw blood it becomes a shark feeding frenzy. They now need a distraction.

I would try the high protein game bird feed and maybe some crickets or meal worms. Plus you might give them something to scratch in and through to get to the feed - maybe spread hay or pine shavings or leaves over the run floor and then throw out food. I throw most of the feed on the ground and scatter it around so they all have to scatter and scratch for the food. I rarely put it in feeders - sometimes I use large shallow pans but mostly I just throw it all around and let them spread out and search for it. Since I have everything from week old babies (chicks and ducklings) running free along with huge 15 pound roosters and many hens and grown ducks and peacocks it's best if I keep them all busy and scattered at feeding time. Plus, I just wouldn't want them to get lazy and bored so I make them work for their food the way they would in nature.

 

[Mesa]

Good point. I'll try scattering the food. I separated the most aggressive feather plucker.
I have a bale of hay I can scatter about too. I bought it for the nesting boxes since the feed store was out of shavings.
This sounds like a long process. Crap. Why did it take me so long to notice? (Oh yeah, I have 4 kids running around lol.)

Any other suggestions? I'll put down hay, and spread out their food, (Game bird feed) add treats through out the day when they arent free ranging. Add fresh oyster shell, and maybe toss in a cup of cat food too.

UGH, stupid feather eating birds. This is beyond frustrating.

 

[CityChook]

I'm not much help here, but thought I could share my experience with you:

My 4 BO girls picked ALL their beautiful downy butt feathers out last February. Literally over night. And they must have eaten them because their coop didn't look like the aftermath of a massive pillow fight. They have been bare monkey-butt chickens since then. It breaks my heart. I've checked over and over again for mites and lice, and even tho I found nothing, I dusted them and their coop anyways. They eat free choice crumbles and oyster shell and greens from the garden or my kitchen scraps at least every other day. They also get a handful of BOSS for treats once a day. They free range several days a week in our suburban backyard. For several months, I fed them kitten chow (with 40% protein), but it didn't affect any new feather growth.

They have 12 sq ft per bird inside the coop, so space isn't a problem. The only thing I can think of is that when it happened, it was REALLY cold and I was feeding them cracked corn as a treat at night to keep them warm during the overnight hours. Maybe I gave them too much (I don't really think so, but it's a theory) and threw off their nutritional balance. Boy oh boy did I worry about them for the rest of the winter -- it's awfully cold here in MN to have a bare booty. Regardless, it has become a habit and now whenever they get new feathers, they pluck them out. It drives me mad.

If they are bloody, I'd give them a squirt of blu-kote. I found that it seems to help raw, irritated skin and will mask any bloody feathers.

Anyways, a long story short, two of my girls are FINALLY NOW starting to regrow some feathers now that the weather is beginning to change. Keeping my fingers crossed that they'll ALL leave these new feathers alone and let them fill in. This year I'm going to be much more mindful of the corn that I feed them.