Help with Feather Picking

[Fizzel15]

We have six hens and two appear to have had some of their feathers plucked. One is experiencing this on her neck and chest (see image) and the other chicken had feathers plucked right above her tail.

We put blinders on all of our other chickens in the coop, hoping that would help, but it appears to still be an issue.

Are these two hens plucking out their own feathers? Or does this sound like typical bullying? We'd appreciate any advice!

 

[nuthatched]

Hi, what's their diet and coop set up like? How much space do they have?

 

[Fizzel15]

Hi, what's their diet and coop set up like? How much space do they have?

Thank you for your response!

We have them in a medium sized coop with a 45" roosting bar and three nesting boxes. We also have a 60 sqft run connected to the coop. This is all for six hens.

We feed them a 17% protein feed.

 

[BlindLemonChicken]

I would up the protein in their feed—maybe try all flock or feather fixer. Boredom is also a possibility and some kind of enrichment would help like a pile of leaves or something they can dig through if they aren’t allowed to free range

 

[Fizzel15]

I would up the protein in their feed—maybe try all flock or feather fixer. Boredom is also a possibility and some kind of enrichment would help like a pile of leaves or something they can dig through if they aren’t allowed to free range

Thank you! I'll give these a try.

 

[BlindLemonChicken]

Thank you! I'll give these a try.

Get some oyster shell to provide separately if you don’t do so already. Most of the higher protein feeds don’t contain enough calcium for laying hens.

 

[fldiver97]

Agree…. Up the protein, you can keep all of them on all flock feed with 20% protein. That also helps if you have non-laying hens in your flock at any given time. Keep calcium in a separate dish available at all times, they will eat it as they need. Boredom and lack of space are usually the other causes. You can place a stump or large branch or a chicken swing in the run for enrichment, hang a cabbage on a string, stuff a suet feeder with some greens etc for enrichment. You shouldn’t add more birds to your current setup; if chicken math strikes - expand

 

[nuthatched]

Upping the protein will help, but this may be a space issue.