My chickens are savages!

[CMV]

Quote:
I haven't eaten any of my laying hens, but I did eat some pigs I used it on. I lived to tell the tale.

Have you tried pine tar to stop the picking? I hate to recommend that stuff, but it usually works. It's foul, sticky, nasty goo that you apply to the picked areas. One mouthful of that swill is generally enough to deter even the most persistent pickers. The trouble is that it is a mess, hard to use and it gets all over everything. I think I would try the pinless peepers before going the pine tar route again. A lot of folks swear by the peepers.

Good luck.

 

[Jamin Mayer]

Well, the shed/coop is 8'x6'. I installed the nesting boxes a couple of weeks ago. The nesting boxes take up the square footage. So, they have 33sq. feet at the moment. I'm not a fan of that either... At the moment, the nesting boxes are setting on cinder blocks. If I get the time to mount them up, then the chickes will get their square footage back. However, they have a 50'x15' long run. They are only in the coop to lay and roost. Since they dont' have much space, I try to let them out before they jump off their roost.

So, yesterday the chickens were pecking her again... They didn't do a lot of damage. In fact, I can only see dry blood. My wife and kids had to isolate the injured one again.

Today, she has a different behavior. She is standing on one of her lower root poles and has her left eye closed. I don't know if she got pecked, but here is not indication of injury to the eye. Even when she walked away from me/ out of the coop, she walked with her left eye open. Therefore, I was able to get right up close to her without her seeing me. When I pick her up, she'll choose to favor her eye and close it. If I sort of blow her, she'll open it and then close it. But, I don't get it. Her eye looks fine.

So, my next conclusion is disease. Am I right?

 

[Jamin Mayer]

Oh. I feed them Nature Wise, layer feed. It says 16% protien.