I think I found a miracle cure for feather picking

[7L Farm]

I don't know how to stop them, mine did it and they stopped just as quick as they started and i didn't change anything. chickens are weird, just when you think you have them figured out they change. just like deer lol

I'm glad yours stopped I'm not trying to take sides start a war. I just wish I could stop this behaviour & guess I'm desperate. My old roo taught the girls the behaviour & I should of gotten rid of that big drumstick then but I didn't. He's gone now & I've curbed the behaviour but thats about it. So trying this product might help I don't know for sure but one things for sure who does? No one exactly know's how to stop it I can honestly say that ?

 

[rigagirl]

I should say that a few of my older(1yr) ones were doing it to the younger ones (5months) i freaked first time i seen one pulling on feather then freaked more when she ate it. i had a rooster so he had already ripped the feathers on most so they were kinda bare. they don't look good but i know and my neighbors knows i care for my girls. i deliver most of my eggs. i am not embarrassed over my girls being different :=)

 

[azygous]

Jim should be around in a bit to answer the challenges presented.

I would like to add something the co-owner of Forco told me as I was ordering another 5 lb bucket of Forco. When the initial development of Forco was being undertaken, chickens were the test animals. They could easily and quickly see and measure progress in their skeletal development, that I assume, would take years if tested on large, slow maturing animals.

I'm confident Forco is safe for my chickens, and until I see clear evidence or studies done contradicting what I've seen and heard about Forco, I'll continue to feed it to them.

 

[Pullet Surprise]

So much to think about! Fantastic discussion. The way I see it there are two causes of feather picking: not enough protien and bordom and maybe a combination of both. I have a picker, my favorite hen and best layer, she is the smartest. She is just plain very tactile with her beak. Has been from the beginning. She does not peck me any more, we stopped that with shunning. But she has the fuzzy butt and the other girls, not so much. It breaks my heart everytime I see her do it. I only heve 7 chickens and they do not free range yet due to preditors from above mostly. I'm working on that. Enlarged the run and things were good for a while. Put all kinds of interesting things in the run and move them around. Hanging cabbage was a BIG flop. I almost think she is the combination of protien & bordom. Been takining her for little walkies before bedtime to see if that helps. Went back to giving more meal worms, which I had backed off from and cut up one hotdog for the whole group for treats. Etc. etc. etc. I wish she could talk and tell me what's up, I spend a lot of time observing her patterns. She has never drawn blood, goes for small feathers usually. Everyone else is aware of "The Shark" and they run if she trys to sneak up on them. No one is safe, rooster or younger girls. except the one other girl her age, she leaves her alone. So this is a thread I am going to follow intently....have a lot to think about. Thanks to y'all

 

[7L Farm]

So much to think about! Fantastic discussion. The way I see it there are two causes of feather picking: not enough protien and bordom and maybe a combination of both. I have a picker, my favorite hen and best layer, she is the smartest. She is just plain very tactile with her beak. Has been from the beginning. She does not peck me any more, we stopped that with shunning. But she has the fuzzy butt and the other girls, not so much. It breaks my heart everytime I see her do it. I only heve 7 chickens and they do not free range yet due to preditors from above mostly. I'm working on that. Enlarged the run and things were good for a while. Put all kinds of interesting things in the run and move them around. Hanging cabbage was a BIG flop. I almost think she is the combination of protien & bordom. Been takining her for little walkies before bedtime to see if that helps. Went back to giving more meal worms, which I had backed off from and cut up one hotdog for the whole group for treats. Etc. etc. etc. I wish she could talk and tell me what's up, I spend a lot of time observing her patterns. She has never drawn blood, goes for small feathers usually. Everyone else is aware of "The Shark" and they run if she trys to sneak up on them. No one is safe, rooster or younger girls. except the one other girl her age, she leaves her alone. So this is a thread I am going to follow intently....have a lot to think about. Thanks to y'all

Nice post! I definately don't no the answer but I'm working on it.

 

[Pullet Surprise]

7L, I can fully appreciate your situation. It's like going to the grocery store and every thing you buy for human consumption has something that is bad for you! I had my husband read this thread all the way through so we could discuss it. I had backed off the meal worms for fear of over doing it and causing renal failure, expense and (forgive me) the ones we get are "made" in China and I'm just not ready to get into mealworm farming. I would guess that my girl is looking for protien as she eats the feathers she picks. But I also think there is a bordom/stress factor in there as I can almost see her get wound up and just know it's coming. My husband made this point: if there is something that helps the chicken better utilize the protien they do get, then that is a definite plus as we would not have to increase the protien by large amounts with its risks. So we have decided to START with augmenting with game bird feed and see what happens, and then....see if Forco is something we might want to do. So here we stand in the "Chicken Grocery Store"..........

 

[azygous]

Pullet Surprise - you have the twin to my Flo! You have described her behavior to a "T". After trying everything you've tried and are thinking of trying with Flo, my EE, I concluded her brain was probably wired that way. And, yes, I could see her get all jacked up in the late afternoon and it would devolve into a frenzy. This hen would race around the run as if possessed by a devil, plucking feathers from the butts and backs of anyone who stood still too long.

And Flo is also my smartest hen and my favorite. About the only time she would be calm and still was when she snuggled in my arms. She is also the only one besides the rooster who will answer to her name. So I was ready to try anything new that might hold out even a slight chance of working. Trying Forco was a shot in the dark.

By the way, meal worm farming is about as simple and fun a hobby as you'll ever find. When I bought a carton of 100 worms for the princely sum of $8 for a sick hen, I decided right there to use them as breeding stock. There's a terrific thread on BYC for meal worm raising that is very helpful. My meal worms reside in a 12"x12"x16", three drawer file box in the water heater closet with wheat bran for food and an occasional carrot for water. The hens appreciate the treats every so often.

 

[Debbz]

Hi, I'm Jim Rea and I am an on line distributor of Forco.......
I feed the adult chickens a mixture of 1/4 Forco and 3/4 dry soybean meal. The soybean meal has 45% protein and I think it helps with feather plucking......
We recommend feeding 1 oz. per ten birds. I don't think you can over feed it, I would not offer it free choice although I can't see a good reason not to other than the cost.....

Jim Rea

Above are some edited snips from the Forco distributor's posting.
It seems the soybean meal is being suggested as better for feather plucking than Forco?
Regarding the 'recommended' feeding rate here, is that a manufacturer's recommendation, and if so why isn't this stuff bagged up and sold as chicken supplement?
Can the distributor's words be taken as a guarantee of safety for human consumption of the eggs and chickens fed with Forco, or is there a withholding period for this horse supplement?

I can understand the desperation to get our hens pluck-free, but no harm in finding out exactly what we're feeding them and getting a manufacturer's guarantee surely.

 

[Cindy in PA]

I wonder if many that are supplementing with higher protein are not giving animal protein. I wouldn't even bother upping the protein with only plant (soybean) protein. Not all GB feeds have animal protein anymore either. I bought Purina Flight Conditioner the other month for the animal protein & quickly found out they had taken out the animal protein. No more Purina for me. Hope you all find a solution.

 

[Pullet Surprise]

Cindy, good point! (more to think about) I did find this and wonder what the differences are between this product and Forco are. Perhaps the Forco rep can enlighten us on that. This product claims it is designed for avians http://www.nationalbirddesigns.com/page2.html and has a FDA rating (for all the good that is or isn't)