Feather Pecking

[Lambydoodle]

Hi Everybody

My chickens seem to be in the habbit of feather pecking and I have tried everything. They have layers pellets, loads of fruit and veg and greenery put into their large pen, grit in bowls, water changed every day, chicken house changed every day and they still peck! I cannot let them freerange as we have a vegetable plot and they can get into neighbours gardens which they do! Their are ten chooks in a coop about 30 feet by twenty feet.

A few questions - Heat - this may sound daft but it has been really hot and I wonder if this affects the cooks.
They had scaly mite which the vet treated with Frontline and that is all sorted but this started the feather pecking and now they seem to be in the habit.

The two top chooks are fine and a very strong minded rescue chook is also fine but the other seven, one in particular which they all seem to have a go at have feathers missing from their fronts.

I watched them all yesterday and the two aggressive chooks seem to pluck at the others feathers if they go near them. The others dont stick up for themselves and just sit there getting their feathers pulled.

Anybody know where you can buy Pinless Peepers inthe UK as this may be my last resort. Otherwise anybody got any ideas apart from spending another fortune building a separate pen for the aggressors - my hubby may divorce me.

Appreciate any advice as this is driving me nuts - and the chooks.

 

[wingsofglory]

Feed them hamburger or cod to supply any missing protein that might be making them crave feathers.

Are they eating the whole feather, or are they pulling the big feathers and just eating the meat on its end? Just wondering.

Mine are doing this too now - eating the whole feather. As I see one do it, I'm catching them and putting in a large kennel. Over the last two days, have five or six in there so far - they are seven weeks old. I have a naked 7 week old roo because of this. Since locking the culprits up, I can already see his feathers coming along. There are more culprits - am seeing bloody spots first time today. Seems to be one kind [blonde] picking on the ones with dark feathers.

I'm going to the store tomorrow for Bluekote [or Bluecoat?] to paint on the naked areas, and Aviva Charge vitamins.