Feather plucking from other chickens

[oldhenlikesdogs]

those measurements are for large poultry growers I think, and they debeak their birds, crowding is bad, as much room as possible. Glad you upped the protein.

 

[shortgrass]

I switched everyone to 22% protein game bird finisher feed. Interestingly, the protein dropped from 20% to 15% just 2 weeks ago when I switched off starter crumble, which is also when I left for vacation and her behavior got so much more apparent.
I am surprised about the space comments. I thought I had loads of space! I thought I read 2 to 4 square feet coop and 10 square feet run per bird??? I am at 2 for the coop and 9 for the run for now until boys are gone and they are not even adult size. What are your space recommendations for adolescents? And, yes, they have roosts and hiding spaces and an abundance of dust baths and I put branches in for them on which to climb and from which they pick berries and leaves

Well it will boil down to how well they all get along... I can elaborate with a personal example lol... My coop is 8x7, my run is about 500x100 and the flyers free range... I have 28 hens in THAT coop, and 4 that sleep in the trees just because there are too many mean bodies in the coop and the 4 that don't like it care the definite free rangers. The BRs don't let ANYone on the top roost, and my EEs clamor around the rooster, causing him to overheat. Poor guy pants all night... I could use less chickens or a bigger coop... They only have about 2 sq feet a piece in there, and come winter, they will ALL be packed in there like sardines, bickering.

The footprint of 2 sq ft per bird is more for mass production... Kind of like how prisoners get a certain sq footage to survive, but not to enjoy actual "life"

PS, hope the protein helps; funny how nutrition can trigger some odd behaviors