Help! Chickens Pecking Each Other, Drawing Blood and Infections!!!!

[Windy Wings]

Hi! I've got 13 chickens, 5 black stars, 5 red stars, 3 Americanas, all hens. They have a pretty decent-sized coop, along with flock blocks. We let them outside to free-range a few days a week. But ever since they started growing their new feathers when they were young, I've had pecking problems with them. Now they've been laying for a few months, and it's only gotten worse. A couple months ago, I had a red star who got pecked very badly on the vent. It got an infection with white ooze coming out of its vent. I separated it till it healed, spraying no-pick and anticeptic spray. It healed pretty good, and we re-introduced it to the flock. Fast-forward a couple months later, it's got the infection again, (it's been getting pecked too, despite my efforts to spray no-pick) along with my 3 americanas, all who have bare backs at the moment, and my red stars who are starting to lose feathers on their backs from pecking. Even my black stars (I think there are 2 that are the bullys, I've had problems with them pecking their eggs) have been losing some feathers. I've also noticed that they like to eat the fluffy feathers on their underside. It seems a little better when they are outside the coop free ranging, as they have space to spread out. But whenever they get close they start pecking again. I'm really not sure what to do at this point, as despite my best efforts, they keep on pecking each other, and the problems are only going to get worse...

 

[dawg53]

You need to go to Ebay and order Pinless Peepers for your birds. Pinless peepers work. You'll need the pliers as well.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/1464141403...C0/mXxbTgXYje2XR9Z8vT5EkbQ==|tkp:BFBMnrSq0cVm

 

[Windy Wings]

Thank you so much!

 

[nuthatched]

How big is their area and what are you feeding ? Pecking is often a symptom of other issues.

 

[BDutch]

Nuthached is right. Pinless peepers are a poor cure. What causes this behaviour is probably bc something is wrong with the food you give them and/or space requirements in combination with the characters of the different chicken breeds.

The fact that things are better when they are free ranging indicates that space is an important factor.

If you let them free range every day /double the run space, build a bigger coop or add a second coop the problems might go away. It won’t be easy to change bad habits around. Maybe you need to seperate the 2 bullies too. Temporary or permanently.

Maybe you need to give feed higher in protein too. Giving chick feed (20% protein) for a while, with grit and oyster shell on the side might help too.