feather picking

[fratmor]

my chick have been laying for 3 weeks now and they have started to pick thee feathers .they have also lost half there run due to SNOW.any clue what is causing them to pick . a couple of them got picked till they where bleeding. I used blue cote , now i read that you can never eat the meat once you use blue cote is that true .I was planning on eating them once they get older and stop laying.

 

[mk4lh]

I had some feather picking going on with my flock also. It could be a number of things, boredom, needing more protein, or once there is blood it seems to be a flag for everyone to pick that same area. I haven't used the blue cote, what I did was a diluted mixture of iodine and water and sprayed the area, they didn't like the taste so that seemed to stop it. There is also a spray available called Hot Pick that you can use, (It's basically water, soap and hot seasoning, like cayenne) I also started giving them some dried mealworms or better yet fresh for protein. For the boredom I would hang assorted veggies just above their heads or release crickets in the hen house on days that it was very cold or snowing heavily to give them something to do. I do have a couple of dominant hens that seem to pick just to keep their place and I've been researching putting on the chicken peepers to break them of picking on everyone else. I hope this helps you some. Good Luck

 

[fratmor]

thanks I was thinking it could be a protein problem .I'm using layer feed 16 % feed

 

[mk4lh]

If you're feeding them a good layer feed, the protein should be okay. I would try the hanging veggies or live crickets. My are fed the Blue Seal layer pellets, and receive scratch twice a day once in the morning to encourage them to leave the warm hen house, and then in the later afternoon.