Hey all. I need some guidance here. I have 36 seven week old chicks that are all mixed breeds that I hatched from eggs. Approximately half are pullets and half are cockerels. About a week and a half ago, I moved them from the brooder out to a mobile coop surrounded by electric netting so they can free range within the net and then I move the net and coop once a week. They are having a wonderful time and are all looking really vibrant and healthy. They forage all day and have lots of places to roost, a big decaying stump to scratch around in and roost on top of, dust baths and 24/7 access to multiple waterers and feeders (I feed them Grubblies starter/grower). However, in the last day or so, I have been observing one little pullet who seems to have little interest in foraging. She seems to be solely focused on systematically going around to every flock member and stealing a feather from their behinds and then eating it and running away. Once I noticed her do it to a couple birds, I watched her for about 15 minutes and she just continued to stalk her flock mates and steal a butt feather any chance she could. She's not aggressive about it and it doesn't really seem bullying, she just follows her flockmate and sneaks a feather when she thinks the bird won't see her. The roosters will run her off when she does it, but the other pullets just let her do it without any complaints (besides a little squawk). So, I ended up catching her and put her in chicken jail (a bottomless dog crate that I put within the electric netting so she can still see and interact with her flock, just can't rip their feathers out). I gave her water and some high protein snacks like black soldier fly larvae and scrambled egg in case it's a protein deficiency.
My main question here is, can this bird even be reformed? I am really wondering why she is doing this and ignoring the foraging and the feed that everyone else loves. They all have tons of space to forage and be chickens, dust baths, fun stumps and roosts, and I give them weeds, bugs and grubs throughout the day as treats. They all have multiple places to hide from arial predators so I don't see stress as a huge factor either. Does anyone have any ideas as to why she developed this behavior when no one else in the flock has? Everything I read about it online talks about boredom, stress, lack of space, lack of protein, etc but I just don't see how that's the case when they are essentially free ranging and all seem to be having a great time except her. Lack of protein maybe because she might be ignoring food sources, but why is she doing that? The most extreme behavior I saw from her in this regard is I was feeding the chicks some beef liver out of my hand which they go wild for. Everyone was in an excited feeding frenzy, except I saw her in the back of everyone, ripping out their butt feathers while they ate their fun treats. Why wasn't she interested in the fun treats herself?!?!?! I am at a loss here. I will try to keep feeding her higher protein snacks with her feed and then reintegrating her with the flock in a couple days maybe, but if I release her and she keeps her butt feather eating behavior up, I may have to cull her or try to re-home her.
My main question here is, can this bird even be reformed? I am really wondering why she is doing this and ignoring the foraging and the feed that everyone else loves. They all have tons of space to forage and be chickens, dust baths, fun stumps and roosts, and I give them weeds, bugs and grubs throughout the day as treats. They all have multiple places to hide from arial predators so I don't see stress as a huge factor either. Does anyone have any ideas as to why she developed this behavior when no one else in the flock has? Everything I read about it online talks about boredom, stress, lack of space, lack of protein, etc but I just don't see how that's the case when they are essentially free ranging and all seem to be having a great time except her. Lack of protein maybe because she might be ignoring food sources, but why is she doing that? The most extreme behavior I saw from her in this regard is I was feeding the chicks some beef liver out of my hand which they go wild for. Everyone was in an excited feeding frenzy, except I saw her in the back of everyone, ripping out their butt feathers while they ate their fun treats. Why wasn't she interested in the fun treats herself?!?!?! I am at a loss here. I will try to keep feeding her higher protein snacks with her feed and then reintegrating her with the flock in a couple days maybe, but if I release her and she keeps her butt feather eating behavior up, I may have to cull her or try to re-home her.
Given that she is the only one with this bad habit, I would doubt that it is caused by nutritional deficiency. Good that you have separated her before she teaches this habit to others in the flock. If separation/maturity does not break the habit, she would have to leave my flock.
