I didn't give them any shaving cream so....

[meathook]

One of my chickens is picking feathers. I am pretty sure I know who it is. I have seen her pick the neck feathers off of our one EE. Today I noticed two other birds with the same bare necks. They are only on the necks as best I can tell. I don't think it is a fashion statement. The weather has been cold here and even though the run is snow free they seem to spend a lot of time inside so I think they are getting a little crazy.

So I am going to try to increase protein will probably add some black oil sunflower seeds and maybe some yogurt or scrambled eggs. The question I have is how much? I have 6 chickens and currently I feed them nothing but layer crumb and a couple handfuls of scratch and some oyster shell. I occasionally throw some greens in if we have them. I do have a light on in the coop for a couple hours after dark and I think I will start cutting back on that as well now that the days are getting longer. This will give them less time to mess with each other. I am getting 5 eggs a day pretty consistently from my red stars. The EE averages and egg every other day.

Thoughts? Should I get some peepers? I hate to order a bunch when I only need one.

 

[meathook]

Oh and any particular type of yogurt? Does sugar matter? Will it rot their teeth?

 

[rcentner]

When one of my hens starting pecking at herself and everyone else I started to give them something to peck at. At 1st I hung things with string, like apples are good cause they are red too, I used gourds covered with peanut butter and some cracked corn or oats, and recently I bought some Suet feeders. Those are great, I can put a lot of different stuff in them and it takes them hours to peck it out. Stale bread, stale crackers, apples and the best is the feeders only cost a dollar or 2 and if you really wanna get fancy you could buy suet for them. Suet has a lot of protein in it (and fat). I would break the suet blocks in 1/2 to ensure they didn't eat too much at once. Keep em busy, I spent a lot of time figuring how to keep em occupied and the hanging food seems best. I no longer have a pecking problem, good luck!