I think I found a miracle cure for feather picking

[azygous]

I caught Flo snatching feathers today. I can't say I'm very surprised since she's been a feather picker almost the entire three years of her life, with brief remissions to give us all a breather.

She was in such a remission since the end of summer, and it's given Joycie, her main victim, a chance to regrow her feathers. I was beginning to enjoy seeing neck feathers on her. Joycie is in full molt, but it's progressing in a slow but orderly fashion. Flo decided today to help herself to a couple of Joycie's new pin feathers.

There's a unique sound a chicken makes when their feathers are being plucked. It sounds like, "Uh!" each time a beak comes down on their body. I was busy cleaning the pen, so I merely kept an eye on the activity out of the corner of my eye. Joycie moved on, and Flo began operating on Izzy, our lone cockerel, who is the offspring of Joycie and also a Buff Brahma. He made the very same "Uh! Uh!" each time Flo snatched a feather from his neck, and he made no attempt to move away, same as Joycie usually does.

Flo is now inhabiting chicken jail during the day. She's still wearing peepers. So you can see that peepers have very limited success in some feather pickers. I may try the Bumpa Bit again, but the last time, I couldn't get it to fit well, and Flo couldn't eat at all. And chicken jail also has limited value. The last time Flo was an extended inmate, it caused a rash of fighting, not only with Flo through the fence, but among the other chickens.

I'm not looking forward to another round of this. But there is only one cure for feather picking and I don't want to got there.

 

[pegm]

Bummer, sorry to hear about Flo. I sure don't remember all this drama when I had chickens years ago. I hope you can get the bit in her mouth better this time and it works for her. Guess as a next to last resort you could start knitting chicken outfits....maybe even seasonal ones.

Saw Meredith drinking out of the nipple waterer last evening, so all seems to be progressing well. Funny, Mer and Goldie hang out together, Grace and Penny (as in Henny, finally named the new Orphington) are hanging together. This afternoon and evening tho all 4 were out together scratching thru the fresh grass clippings and eating the cabbage I hung in the run. Boy, they can go thru a cabbage in no time. Goldie still has her tail feathers and I have not heard her surprised "uh" sound at all. Hope this keeps up.

I hope you find a solution for Flo.

 

[Lacy Blues]

 

[azygous]

Yay! What a relief your flock is in a happy place! Hopefully the peepers will curtail Meredith's inclinations and she'll eventually forget all about Goldie's tail feathers.

Funny how they have a favorite spot to pick. With Flo, it's mainly necks, but when she's got a moving target, she'll settle for a back. Flo is a tad depressed all by herself in jail. She wouldn't touch the tuna and mashed squash I presented to her a while ago.

 

[pegm]

So far so good, but Meredith still asserts her seniority, I hear squawks coming from the coop fairly often, but no apparent feather picking. Thank you again so much for sending the peepers. It may make a new hen of Meredith.

 

[azygous]

You're very welcome! As for Meredith asserting her seniority, heck, someone has to be top hen, and if Mer wants it, then I'm sure the others are happy to let her have it!

Hopefully, she won't figure out how to outsmart the peepers, at least for a good long time. Flo is my only feather picker who appears to have been born with a brain hard-wired for picking. All my other pickers have been pretty much deterred by wearing peepers, and have been able to be weaned off them after awhile.

Let's keep our fingers crossed Meredith is not one of those hard-wired cases.

 

[pegm]

AMEN to that!!

 

[azygous]

"Flo, I said, "have you been eating butt feathers again?"

"I did not eat butt feathers", she replied, and added, "Honest."

"But Flo," I said, "you have butt feathers all over your beak."

"I did not eat butt feathers," she insisted again.

Maybe she's aspiring to politics now.

 

[Sunflowergirl]

"Flo, I said, "have you been eating butt feathers again?"

"I did not eat butt feathers", she replied, and added, "Honest."

"But Flo," I said, "you have butt feathers all over your beak."

"I did not eat butt feathers," she insisted again.

Maybe she's aspiring to politics now.

 

[pegm]

The top picture was definitely meant to disarm you and convince you she is telling you the truth....but the SECOND picture..well...she's already got butt feathers back on her mind...As to weather or not she has political ambitions...well, she'd fit right in. First of all, she's a chicken...secondly she "kisses" a lot of butt and last butt not least, she can look you in the face with the evidence of her infractions all over it, and still expect you to believe her. Yep, she may well fit in as a politician.