I apologize for the long post on an old topic but i have been fighting this for a while. I have 6 hens and have been losing a feather plucking war. I have read every thread about feather picking I could find and spent hours on google.
They have a large house with a large run that are cleaned weekly, plenty of food and clean water, access to oyster shell and grit, a toy they never play with, access to sun and shade, a chicken spa bin with ash/DE/sand mix, daily treats of Henny Penny and some mealworms, vegetable scraps from our kitchen every few days....basically they are spoiled rotten as chickens should be.
I do not free range them because all the houses around me have dogs and I worry about them flying over a fence as well as all the hawks I see flying about during the day. It also rains a lot most of the year here so a covered run seems like a better option. I add something interesting to peck/look at/eat/whatever every day since they can't be out in the yard.
I have tried lowering the amount of light they get per day, changing their food from pellets to mash, increasing protein (hence the mealworms), lotions, adding vinegar to their water for minerals, hanging out by the coop and squirting offenders with water, separating bottom of the order hens and separating picking offenders. We even built a small coop we call the asylum because Dorothy, our crazy chicken, is currently living in it.
Nothing has worked. They are all victims to it to some extent and have sad, bare butts. Taking out the worst picker only results in the next in line taking up where she left off. These are my first chickens and I am so frustrated and worried I have done something wrong and that is why they are doing this. Even the crazy chicken (who was the worst picker by far) is still missing feathers because she must pull them out herself. They have been checked for mites and other parasites and seem perfectly healthy and happy aside from missing feathers.
I bought pinless peepers as a last resort and have had them for a few weeks now. I haven't been able to bring myself to put them on. We had Dorothy in a towel with pliers in hand and the pins seemed so big and her nostrils so little. So I went to Home Depot for asylum coop supplies instead.
Do the pinless peepers users have any advice? I know they are the correct size, I didn't get turkey ones or something by mistake. I got the chicken ones from eggcartons.com. The pins seem like there is no way they will fit. I thought maybe we could file them down a little but then worry about them being too sharp. Any advice is appreciated and thank you in advance.
They have a large house with a large run that are cleaned weekly, plenty of food and clean water, access to oyster shell and grit, a toy they never play with, access to sun and shade, a chicken spa bin with ash/DE/sand mix, daily treats of Henny Penny and some mealworms, vegetable scraps from our kitchen every few days....basically they are spoiled rotten as chickens should be.
I do not free range them because all the houses around me have dogs and I worry about them flying over a fence as well as all the hawks I see flying about during the day. It also rains a lot most of the year here so a covered run seems like a better option. I add something interesting to peck/look at/eat/whatever every day since they can't be out in the yard.
I have tried lowering the amount of light they get per day, changing their food from pellets to mash, increasing protein (hence the mealworms), lotions, adding vinegar to their water for minerals, hanging out by the coop and squirting offenders with water, separating bottom of the order hens and separating picking offenders. We even built a small coop we call the asylum because Dorothy, our crazy chicken, is currently living in it.
Nothing has worked. They are all victims to it to some extent and have sad, bare butts. Taking out the worst picker only results in the next in line taking up where she left off. These are my first chickens and I am so frustrated and worried I have done something wrong and that is why they are doing this. Even the crazy chicken (who was the worst picker by far) is still missing feathers because she must pull them out herself. They have been checked for mites and other parasites and seem perfectly healthy and happy aside from missing feathers.
I bought pinless peepers as a last resort and have had them for a few weeks now. I haven't been able to bring myself to put them on. We had Dorothy in a towel with pliers in hand and the pins seemed so big and her nostrils so little. So I went to Home Depot for asylum coop supplies instead.
Do the pinless peepers users have any advice? I know they are the correct size, I didn't get turkey ones or something by mistake. I got the chicken ones from eggcartons.com. The pins seem like there is no way they will fit. I thought maybe we could file them down a little but then worry about them being too sharp. Any advice is appreciated and thank you in advance.
