Feather eating?

[wlantry]

So I have a big run... Almost 300 square feet for fourteen hens, with lots of perches, etc. Even a 14 foot by 12 inch bench raised 15 inches off the ground. They have plenty of room. But they sneak up behind each other, especially if one's perched on the bench, pluck out a tail feather, and eat it. What the heck is going on?

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Insufficient dietary protein.
What are they being fed? What percentage of the diet is chicken feed and other things?

Some high quality animal protein like a can of mackerel every couple days should do the trick if that's the problem.

Feathers are 92% protein.
Chicken feed is usually 16% protein or so and if supplanted by much grain, they aren't getting enough.
Also, the vegetative sources of protein are low in lysine, methionine and tryptophan which must be supplemented with synthetic amino acids to bring the chicken feed to an acceptable level.

 

[wlantry]

They're about 12 weeks old... born near the end of March... so they're still on chick starter crumbles, free choice. Every few days, they'll get some watermelon rinds. Should I be giving them something else?

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Is your starter 18% or 20% protein?

The thing is you have to find out why they feel like they need to eat feathers and correct that.
I had cannibalism for the first time last spring. I had cut back to a 16% protein at about 10 weeks. I started mixing in some fishmeal to temporarily raise the crude protein to 20% and that corrected the problem.