Little Pluckers

[kotwica]

I had 14 chickens and adopted 6 more from a home that no longer could care for them. Of the 6 orphans, 4 had feathers plucked from their backsides. After watching them, I noticed two little pluckers constantly abusing the other 4. I slowly introduced them to my flock, and they have been with me for a few months now.

I thought their plucking had stopped. I gave them better food than they had before, their living conditions are extremely better, but those two little pluckers keep picking on the other 4. They don't dare pick on the other 14 girls… my older hens, 4 rhode island reds, will snap at them and show them who's boss… The other 10 little girls stick together and the pluckers ignore them.

I have two coops: a smaller one with my older girls and a larger one with my baby girls. I have allowed the girls to mix and choose where they sleep, since they free range most of the day. The pluckers split up - one in each coop. The plucker who sleeps with the rhode islands has a buddy she's constantly plucking on. The plucker in the baby coop plucks the other three orphans who stay with her.

I don't know what to do with these little pluckers… Better food, more protein, activities, roaming… what else do I try? Today, I moved both plucker in with my rhode island reds, and I put the other abused orphans with the babies. I hope this helps, but I am afraid it will escalate to bleeding. I've been applying blu kote to the plucked areas to try to deter the pluckers, but it has not helped.

Any advice would be much appreciated. They've been semi-bald for months!

 

[cavemanrich]

There are drastic measures that I do not want to mention, But you may want to give this a try. Roosters often have their top beak trimmed so they don't fight and injure other roosters. You may want to try it on these 2 pluckers. Read up some on how to do it. Make sure that it is only the top portion of the beak. If you trimmed the bottom, then they would not be able to drink water. Hope this gives you some direction towards a solution. Rehoming is also an option, but maybe not easy in your situation.
WISHING YOU BEST

 

[enola]

How old are these pluckers?

 

[kotwica]

They are only about 10 months old...

 

[enola]

If you really want to keep them, you could try pinless peepers. They break up the line of sight, but, they can still see downward to eat and drink. They can not zero in on a feather to pluck it off their buddy.

If they were in my coop, they would get invited to dinner.

 

[kotwica]

Thank you!