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Some of the varieties are very slow feathering, making them more susceptible to picking in a group environment. Sometimes crowding is a cause, sometimes stress from heat, or mixing of different breeds as some are more active than others. Some strains are more prone to picking than others. The peepers make it hard for them to see directly in front of them and thus hard to accurately aim for feather picking purposes. A group of young birds will pick one of their pen mates to death in a very short amount of time should they get started. Some of my pens get along just fine without them, and others not so much. I use them on my large White particularly. Their new feathers are pink at the base and quite a tantalizing morsel to their pen mates, even of the same color.
Thanks Cochinman.....I guess we have been really lucky then, we have a mixed group....a few cochins, marans, barnevelders, speckled sussex, blue laced red wyandottes and olive eggers...this is our first flock....now 2 1/2 months old and doing great. No one has gotten picked on. Thank you for letting me know!
Some of the varieties are very slow feathering, making them more susceptible to picking in a group environment. Sometimes crowding is a cause, sometimes stress from heat, or mixing of different breeds as some are more active than others. Some strains are more prone to picking than others. The peepers make it hard for them to see directly in front of them and thus hard to accurately aim for feather picking purposes. A group of young birds will pick one of their pen mates to death in a very short amount of time should they get started. Some of my pens get along just fine without them, and others not so much. I use them on my large White particularly. Their new feathers are pink at the base and quite a tantalizing morsel to their pen mates, even of the same color.
Thanks Cochinman.....I guess we have been really lucky then, we have a mixed group....a few cochins, marans, barnevelders, speckled sussex, blue laced red wyandottes and olive eggers...this is our first flock....now 2 1/2 months old and doing great. No one has gotten picked on. Thank you for letting me know!
