I think I found a miracle cure for feather picking

[Lacy Blues]

You can buy frozen blueberries at any time of the year. Check the frozen fruit isle.

 

[azygous]

Who ate your face, Francie?

Something looked different about my EE Francie when I picked her up yesterday. Oh, her face muffs are gone! And there's a complete bald spot where her beard is supposed to be! Someone ate her face!

It's the only sign of feather picking so far, but I expected it to reappear in the spring. It looks like Francie is the first victim. I haven't observed anyone actually doing it, but someone had to have picked Francie's face clean. It has to hurt having your face feathers yanked out. I have a problem understanding why they put up with it.

Anyway, feather picking season is here!

 

[azygous]

I just felt like doing an update on Flo. But before I get into what Flo is up to these days, I want to report that Francie's "face", her muff and beard, grew back in record time, and the picker fiend who did it hasn't noticed, so that's good.

But back in the sub-flock of trouble-makers, the Sussex Four, Geobett has been doing a number on Judy. She doesn't yank the feathers out and eat them. Judy isn't bald anywhere, but most of her feathers have been "unraveled". Her hard flat feathers are frayed and flayed like a nice sweater where the yarn has been raked so it's all fuzzy and furry. It's a definite "look". Can't say as I particularly care for it. I prefer her smooth feathers which looked terrific for all of a week after the new ones came in following fall molt. No one is sporting peepers yet.

Now for Flo. She's still isolated from the flock, but she can still interact with them from the safety of her "jail". Winter was very hard on her, very cold weather caused total lameness, and she couldn't even stand. She had to eat from a plate on the ground. Water had to be down low, also. It was very sad. But when the weather warmed up in between cold fronts, she would merely be gimpy. Now that spring is here, she is getting around fairly well.

She even forgets she's lame, and she insists on wanting out of protective confinement from time to time. So I let her stroll through the main part of the run when the flock is out ranging. The other day, she even decided to go into the main coop and lay her egg. I had to help her up to the nest box. She's been laying regularly every other day in a dog crate I rigged up in her jail cell.

But the minute one of the other chickens wanders back into the run from free ranging, Flo is immediately pounced on and flogged. If she's quick enough, she sees it coming and hobbles over to me and hides behind my legs, for all the good that does, unless I pick her up, which she's counting on.

The biggest change for Flo is she now has a permanent bed in a wicker basket, turned on its side, in the garage. There's no point in trying to make her sleep in a coop full of her enemies, and the garage is better for her legs since it stays around 50 when it's freezing outside.

So, every morning, I carry Flo out to the run, and at roosting time, I carry her back into the garage and she gets in her little basket-bed, happy as a clam. Flo is now around five years old. I bet she the only disabled hen with her very own care-giver.

 

[Cluckies]

Oh sweet Flo My feather picker cluck cluck is back at it, never really stopped though. but some good news, baby and now I think mother have had enough and are standing up to her, hopefully she'll leave them alone. that only leaves morticia and goose that need to tell her to stop. we'll see if they ever do! I hope so! Good to hear Flo is still with us. I'm wondering if it would help to give her glucosamine for her arthritis? worked wonders for our dog.

 

[equius]

I have bumpa bits

Jim Rea [email protected]

 

[zinia8]

I have bumpa bits

Jim Rea   [email protected]

Great!!!! I will be in touch.

 

[Lacy Blues]

I don't like the bumpa bits and I'll tell you why.

First off, they don't take the sun very well. They're not UV resistant at all. They will break during their first summer.

Second, they will change the shape of your bird's beak and that's gotta hurt. The lip that goes around the front edge keeps the beak from growing forward but it doesn't stop growing. It jams against that lip and as the beak continues to grow, the shape of the beak changes because it is being forced upward in the middle of the beak. I think though, that the ones I got were small, maybe they were for bantams?

I just looked at a clip on youtube about bumpa bits (the only video on there) and the one they put on their bird extended beyond the birds beak about 1/4 inch or so. Mine were shorter than that.

 

[azygous]

The problem with Bumpa bit sizes is they only come in two. I told Jim to get the smalls because of my experience with the longs. But there are many different size beaks and different chickens abilities to adjust to eating with the bits. My experience was that the longer bits were making it take longer for a chicken to learn to eat with it installed. The shorter bits seemed to have a shorter learning curve.

I certainly did notice, like Lacy, that the beaks were being protected and so they were growing long and hitting the end of the bit. I made note to trim beaks of any long-term bit wearer. I think the breakage is due partly to the black color absorbing more ultraviolet radiation and rotting (Lacy and I both live in high solar radiation parts of the US), and also getting a lot of abuse being on the most active part of a chicken's anatomy. (Other than the vent, that is.)

Bits are a VERY short term solution to pecking and should only be employed after peepers have been tried and failed to produce any results.

I hate them, too, Lacy.

 

[zinia8]

Peepers have worked for some but not for all out of the 8 birds I only put peepers on the worst offenders so 4 got peepers. I had one hen that was totally blind with the peeper on. She sat in the nest for whole day in the nest box wouldn't come out for treats. I took them off the next day and she ate like a pig.i have one that overcame the peepers and resumed feather picking.
Anyways it seems like the peepers are working. Naked chickens last yr this time without peepers vs. more feathered chickens with peepers. (except for the rooster someone still picked him clean)
so i am going to take the peepers off and see how it goes now that the are not confined to the coop and out on the range more.
plan to order up some bumpa bits and use the short term as azygous suggested when the weather starts to change in the fall.

 

[azygous]

Someone PMed me with the question - how do I find the feather picker when I can't see anyone actually doing the deed? Here's my answer. I thought this question and answer would be good to share with more than just one person.

The big reason you aren't able to see this behavior taking place is that you are programmed to look for a victim reacting to being molested. Most of the time picking victims are docile and complacent as the picking is happening. It doesn't look like you expect it to look. It's more like one hen being "chummy" with another and no one hollers because she's losing her feathers.

It's unlikely that it's happening early in the morning. Feather picking is more likely to occur in the afternoon as hens are loafing. That's when you want to set up your observation. And watch for two hens lying about together. One may be re-arranging the other's feathers.

It's highly unlikely it is happening at roosting time. Hens are single-minded about getting settled in for the night to think about engaging in this behavior, which is more associated with late afternoon, "let's kick back and rest" loafing.

If you know your hens and which ones associate with which hens, look for two best buddies. It's almost always a buddy doing it to another.

So if you have feather loss and you suspect a feather picker is active in your flock, set up observation in mid-afternoon when your hens are lying about dirt-bathing or just plain old loafing. That's usually when you'll see your culprit "at work". liberating feathers from a docile victim.