How to keep Polish from getting their heads plucked by others?

[Sunny Side Up]

I have 8 young Polish pullets & cockerels that I'm raising to show & sell at our county fair in a few months. They're kept in a roomy pen and shouldn't have any complaints. But they are pecking the feathers off the heads of a select few. I really don't want to keep each in a separate pen, is there anything I can put on their heads to discourage the plucking? Someone told me that she used diaper rash cream, has anyone else tried something like this?

 

[al6517]

Quote:
They are trimming each others Hairdo's in preperation for the upcoming show, but since they mostly pullets I wouldn't rule out vindictiveness as a reason for the hair pulling, it's a girl thang . It must be a sight to see all those polish pullets cat fighting hehehehehe.

 

[akchick74]

I'm having the same problem. I have one golden polish rooster with 11 hens (8 red stars and 3 easter egg layers). He seems to be in charge, but keeps getting pecked on and is losing more feathers by the day. Winter is coming and I'm worried about his bare head! Can I make him a little hat? Anyone try to put a hat on a rooster? It sounds silly but I'll try anything. These are free range birds too, so I don't think that space is an issue. Serious ideas would be of great help. Thanks.

 

[calicokat]

You might try securing the top feathers with painter's tape or a small pony tail holder (the tiny ones, for toddlers) - we've done that to keep the poof from getting dirty. It might make it so the others can't peck at it.

With our little flock of mixed birds with polish, it's only been a problem once and that was an older production hen picking at chicks - so we policed that sitution pretty tightly and it went away. Funny thing is, that particular hen is momma to a batch of polish babies now. Wonder what she'll do if someone picks at one of "HER" babies this time, LOL