Feather picker!

[willr]

Hi, I have 7 RIR's. They are about 4 weeks old. I had them in a small stock tank brooder but about a week ago I noticed one start plucking feathers from all the other chicks. They had plenty of room to stay away from the light so I don't suspect heat. I am feeding them a quality Nuetrena starter crumble feed and none of the other chicks are plucking so
I assumed it was a space issue. I went ahead and moved them into a 5x6 coop with a heat lamp in it to give them more space. After 24 hrs I let them out into the enclosed run and then today let them out to wander the yard. The plucker is still plucking... Mostly when they are back in the run or coop. She doesn't seem to be doing a significant amount of damage to any particular chick, nor does she seem to prefer any particular chick. I don't have a great option to seperate her although I guess I could put her back into the water trough solo. Advice? I'm obviously worried about this becoming a bigger problem. I'm going on about a week since I originally noticed it happening, I still haven't seen any of the other chicks plucking.

Any help would be appreciated!

 

[willr]

Any advice out there?

 

[gander007]

Oh it really is not going to stop but you could separate them
but I have noticed it only works in some cases ,,, as you
have a picker .....

 

[willr]

Seems like I'm finding everything from cull the chick before they all start eating each other to don't worry about it.... Does anyone have any actual success stories for feather pluckers?

 

[chickengeorgeto]

It sounds like a pecking order issue since only one chick is doing it. This is how chickens have evolved to deal with who gets to eat and drink first, who has the best place to sleep, and who has the best or most access to other resources.

Without being there I suspect that it would be abnormal if this 'plucking' behavior wasn't happening.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

One other thing, anything that you do to "reform" your plucking chick only destroys its self confidence sending it into depression. And anytime that you separate a chick like this from her sisters, another chick will arise to pluck her sister chicks just as hard.