My 2 "bearded" Easter Eggers have bald necks from feather pulling. Pls help. URGENT!!!

[easteregges]

My 2 "bearded" Easter Eggers have bald necks from feather pulling. One of my blue marans and both of my Ideal 236 ( mix of brown and white leghorn, ancona, and california grey) have been pulling beard, neck and head feathers out of my EEs. this has been going on for several months but it have increased and worsened recently most likely due to the heat and stress from it. I have tried purple no peck, hen healer ointment but they dont stay on very long. I cant cover it because it is on their necks and heads. I spray Vetricyn on it at night. Isolation and pinless peepers are a no go in this heat. Any advice and help is much appreciated. Thank You. EDIT >>They are on 20% protien layer feed. They get BSL, sunflower seeds, cracked corn and oat scratch grain mix every other day. the scratch and layer feed is from a good local feed mill. They have a big pen. All are hens, 10 in total, and a little over a year old.

 

[DobieLover]

Welcome to BYC!

They are on 20% protien layer feed.

I've never seen a layer mix with 20% protein before. What brand is it?

What is in the pen for enrichment? What size is it? Can you post pictures?

Beards and muffs get plucked often by beardless and muffless birds.

 

[Lacy Duckwing]

I'm having the same exact issue and have been fighting it all season. Some of my birds look absolutely awful right now. The thing I'm currently doing is a Pinless Peeper rotation. Pinless Peepers aren't supposed to be on for more than two weeks, so what I've done is I've split my flock in half, and have about a week's difference of who's wearing the Pinless Peepers and who isn't. The first half gets their Pinless Peepers off first, and when the second half is getting theirs off, I'm putting the Pinless Peepers back on the first half. With this rotation, it's keeping the Pinless Peepers on my birds at all times, but are also giving them a break at the end of every two weeks on each half's turn. Unfortunately, from what I've seen, the Pinless Peepers aren't completely stopping my hens, all it's doing is preventing my hens from seeing exactly what they're plucking so the feathers are getting a chance to grow back.

An example of my rotation:

 

[easteregges]

Welcome to BYC!


I've never seen a layer mix with 20% protein before. What brand is it?

What is in the pen for enrichment? What size is it? Can you post pictures?

Beards and muffs get plucked often by beardless and muffless birds.

Hi, I get the feed from a feedmill called Livengoods Feed.
They have a big covered bathing area, little patios, perches and logs, leaves. I plan to get them a couple hay bails soon to put under a canopy.
They have a big pen. i cannot post pictures. I tried and failed.
unfortunantly they are now missing feathers down their and on and around their heads. any advice or help is appreciated. Thank you.

 

[easteregges]

I'm having the same exact issue and have been fighting it all season. Some of my birds look absolutely awful right now. The thing I'm currently doing is a Pinless Peeper rotation. Pinless Peepers aren't supposed to be on for more than two weeks, so what I've done is I've split my flock in half, and have about a week's difference of who's wearing the Pinless Peepers and who isn't. The first half gets their Pinless Peepers off first, and when the second half is getting theirs off, I'm putting the Pinless Peepers back on the first half. With this rotation, it's keeping the Pinless Peepers on my birds at all times, but are also giving them a break at the end of every two weeks on each half's turn. Unfortunately, from what I've seen, the Pinless Peepers aren't completely stopping my hens, all it's doing is preventing my hens from seeing exactly what they're plucking so the feathers are getting a chance to grow back.

View attachment 3630306

An example of my rotation:

View attachment 3630307

Thank you for the info, this has been going even before summer. Only three of my girls are pecking. im mainly trying to regrow the EEs feathers before winter.

 

[Lacy Duckwing]

Thank you for the info, this has been going even before summer. Only three of my girls are pecking. im mainly trying to regrow the EEs feathers before winter.

You're welcome. Same here on the plucking. It started last fall and has gotten worst as time goes on. On the Pinless Peeper rotation, this is something I just started a few weeks ago, and it's been the most promising on fighting the plucking.

Has any of them had any pin feathers show up on where their beards are? I've had a couple of chickens that had all their pin feathers start all at once, so I separated them by themselves for a molt. On some of my others, where only a few pin feathers showed up, I didn't bother separating because it's not promising that the whole beard will grow back, thus being more tempting to pluck if there's only a couple of feathers.

Oh, on a side note: some of my hens are worst pluckers than others, with some appearing like they're not plucking at all. Just because you don't see them pluck, doesn't mean they aren't. One of my Easter Eggers whose beard was plucked is actually one of my worst pluckers. Whenever I separate one for a molt, I keep the bird alone because I can't trust any of my birds. Once one starts it, they all copy.

 

[easteregges]

You're welcome. Same here on the plucking. It started last fall and has gotten worst as time goes on. On the Pinless Peeper rotation, this is something I just started a few weeks ago, and it's been the most promising on fighting the plucking.

Has any of them had any pin feathers show up on where their beards are? I've had a couple of chickens that had all their pin feathers start all at once, so I separated them by themselves for a molt. On some of my others, where only a few pin feathers showed up, I didn't bother separating because it's not promising that the whole beard will grow back, thus being more tempting to pluck if there's only a couple of feathers.

Oh, on a side note: some of my hens are worst pluckers than others, with some appearing like they're not plucking at all. Just because you don't see them pluck, doesn't mean they aren't. One of my Easter Eggers whose beard was plucked is actually one of my worst pluckers. Whenever I separate one for a molt, I keep the bird alone because I can't trust any of my birds. Once one starts it, they all copy.

Thank you so much, you have been very helpful. With one of my EEs her skin has turned red (from the sun) and is not growing any back where her beard used to be, but does have growth where there has been recent pecking, on her lower neck, and on and around her head. The other is bare from her beard all the way down her neck and now more on the sides. their is some new growth but it get pulled. thank you again.

 

[Lacy Duckwing]

Thank you so much, you have been very helpful. With one of my EEs her skin has turned red (from the sun) and is not growing any back where her beard used to be, but does have growth where there has been recent pecking, on her lower neck, and on and around her head. The other is bare from her beard all the way down her neck and now more on the sides. their is some new growth but it get pulled. thank you again.

You're welcome. On a couple of my hens who were being plucked, the hens were able to pluck all around their necks, to the point they looked like Turkens. Thankfully, one was able to be separated for a molt and the other (an EE) is growing her hackles back since I've been doing the Pinless Peepers rotation.