I rescued 3 chickens from a farmer who no longer wanted his animals. That was just before Easter, so mid April. I never had chickens prior to that. They came with their coop. It was pretty obvious that they were not used to people, and I was pretty sure they had never been out of the coop. I have no idea how old they are, but they were definitely not young. Also, were visibly not well cared for. After a couple of weeks, one died in the coop. Not sure how/why. We got chicks & eventually I started letting these 2 adults free range. They started to look healthier & while they still don't run to me like the "babies" do, they will take treats out of my hand. None of the 3 I adopted ever had feathers on their butts. I thought it was due to malnourishment or stress- like a prolonged molt. I added vitamins to their feed, give them treats on the weekends, supplemented their feed with feather fixer & game bird/ show bird feed, & they free range all day every day. About a month or so ago, the skinny one, Bertha, FINALLY grew butt & tail feathers! She looks beautiful. Percy, the fat one, has only just begun to grow feathers on her butt- but she picks at them sometimes. I figured they must be itchy. These chickens' coop has been cleaned & dusted for mites. I have never seen a bug on either of them. Yesterday morning I woke to find Percy's butt covered in fresh red blood. It was from a tail feather that had been ripped out. I saw Bertha peck at it several times before I could get Percy out of the coop, I washed it off & treated it with a tea tree oil spray and with a blue lotion (I think called peck no more?). I culled her overnight. She appeared to be fine & happy & free ranged alone all day. I let Bertha out with her briefly & they were fine. As soon as they went in the coop for the night, Bertha started pecking Percy's butt again. I am culling Percy again tonight. Now I'm wondering if Bertha has been pecking at Percy all of this time. If that is the case, will I ever be able to stop it? They both eat an excellent diet and have several acres to roam every day. I wouldn't imagine that it could be boredom at this point- only a habit. Like I said, I have no idea how old they are or how long this could've possibly been going on.
Does anyone have any experience with this? Any ideas? I don't want to keep Bertha in the coop by herself all winter, but she bullies all of my other chickens, and I definitely don't want her to introduce this behavior to them as well.
^this was probably in June. You can see neither has many butt feathers^
Percy is on the left in both pictures above.
Berthas feathers starting to come in.
Bertha has tail feathers. Percy still doesn't.
Bloody butt.
Purple butt.
Does anyone have any experience with this? Any ideas? I don't want to keep Bertha in the coop by herself all winter, but she bullies all of my other chickens, and I definitely don't want her to introduce this behavior to them as well.
^this was probably in June. You can see neither has many butt feathers^
Percy is on the left in both pictures above.
Berthas feathers starting to come in.
Bertha has tail feathers. Percy still doesn't.
Bloody butt.
Purple butt.