I noticed today when sitting with my chickens, that Everytime my roosters bends over to peck something one of my hens starts to eat his butt feathers. He doesn't hardly notice or mind, I honestly don't think he knows what she's doing, but occasionally he makes a small noise like "watch it!" And she stops and backs away. He is a very fluffy bantam Cochin so I would never have noticed feather loss if I hadn't witnessed it.
It's not bullying because besides the fact that he's the rooster, they never fight. And as far as protein deficiency, I don't believe it's that either. They are on layer food crumbles, they get scratch and mealworms almost daily, in addition to other goodies including eggs sometimes. They only get out to forage 3-4xs a week though so perhaps boredom? They have plenty of space and there's only 4 of them.
I moved some things around in their area and gave them hay today. I will be reintroducing a hen in the mix soon and I will be adding on to their area this weekend so I'm hoping with all that it will liven things up. Thoughts?
It's not bullying because besides the fact that he's the rooster, they never fight. And as far as protein deficiency, I don't believe it's that either. They are on layer food crumbles, they get scratch and mealworms almost daily, in addition to other goodies including eggs sometimes. They only get out to forage 3-4xs a week though so perhaps boredom? They have plenty of space and there's only 4 of them.
I moved some things around in their area and gave them hay today. I will be reintroducing a hen in the mix soon and I will be adding on to their area this weekend so I'm hoping with all that it will liven things up. Thoughts?
