Other hens pecking my hen around the vent

[mcycle12]

Three of my four birds are still bare of feathers in the butt area. The fourth, a Rhode Island Red, has lost some, but not as much. She's a spunky chicken, so she most likely doesn't put up with it as much as the others. I watched intently for about a half hour today and saw the pecking behavior. One of them will be bent over to eat and another comes up behind and delivers a random peck.

After seeing it again today, I took the next step.....Pinless Peepers. I put the peepers on while my wife was holding them. They are not happy, but by the end of the day, three seem to have adjusted. The buff orpington is the exception. She seems to be the most active when it comes to the pecking. She did everything possible to get the peepers off all the way up until the time they went up to roost.

I hope the peepers help with the problem. My question is: Will they have to wear the peepers forever? I'm hoping that after a while they will forget the behavior so that I am able to take them off.

 

[rosemarythyme]

I'd try it for a 4-6 weeks at first and see how they do with them. Hopefully that'll allow some of the bare spots to start growing back in as well, which makes it a bit less tempting of a target.

 

[mcycle12]

Here's a couple of pics of unhappy chickens. They seem fine this morning. The oprhington gets frustrated she can't see right in front of herself and goes into this machine gun pecking at the dirt. The others are just fine. They are happy and calling for me to come out with their morning treat.

 

[mcycle12]

Update: The peepers seem to have an adverse effect on the chickens. They have stopped eating. I tried to put piles of food on the floor of the run but they don't seem interested. They have stopped eating from the feeder. I cut some of the dividers out of it thinking the peepers were hitting the dividers and keeping them from getting food. No help there. The only thing they seem interested in is the weeds I bring into the run for them. There is a noticeable decline in the amount of poop on the tray each day. In fact some of it is green....as in stomach bile. They are listless and just stand at the door squawking for me to come out. Egg production has declined from four total per day to one or two daily.

Do I remove the blinders and allow them to peck each other or keep them on and risk their health in other ways? Please give me some advice and guidance here. Thanks!

 

[aart]

Do I remove the blinders

I would...see what happens.

 

[Liz Birdlover]

I tried pinless peepers once, when there seemed to be some aggressive behavior going on, between Hens & some Roos. Most did fine but a few of the Chickens & Roos were having issues eating & seemed absolutely miserable, and then they started losing weight & then getting picked on...they weren't even the original ones being bullied. I ended up removing the pinless peepers, after they had worn them abt a week, when I saw one had a bit of blood on his nare. So after I removed the peepers, things stayed calm!

There is always going to be a pecking order, and the chickens are always establishing that, so there will be some pecking & squabbling, the only time to really intervene is if someone isn't getting to eat & losing weight or being bullied so badly there are bloody boo boos or major nakedness from many many feathers being plucked out or constant hiding & cowering or running in fear, not permitted by the others to eat, drink or dustbathe in peace.

I've seen a few bully incidents once a year or so, I remove the bully a few days, to a "time out" cage then return that bird and usually the pecking order sort of starts over & the bully isn't as much of a bully after a time out.

I did have to totally move just 1 hen to new group, she suddenly got bullied so badly she'd do nothing but run, cower & hide, still don't know why every hen & the Roo in that group ganged up on her after 3 years of getting along fine, but I moved her to another group of hens & Roo one night. So when they woke up & she was there in the new group & they were just fine, they're sweet natured and she's been great with them for a year now. This group is funny, gentle Roo & each hen was either older or just very meek, so I'm glad they are sweet in that group. If anyone else gets bullied badly, they can be moved over there too.

If your hens are not eating properly, remove the peepers, give some grain & mealworms to entice eating again so they get their weight back & poo looks better. See how they do without the peepers by now, maybe things will be calm like they were for my chickens. Good luck.

 

[mcycle12]

I took the peepers off today. There was an immediate improvement in their mood. They began eating (and pooping after a few hours.) There were no eggs today. That is a first in months. Even in the coldest weather there would be three or four. They ate everything that had been sitting on the floor of the run. I hope there are eggs again tomorrow. I'm glad to see them in a better mood. Now, going forward I hope that they stop pecking each other.

 

[Liz Birdlover]

Sounds good.
You know there is always going to be some pecking, usually minor, as they're always reestablishing pecking order. As long as no one is bloody, bald or cowering in fear, it's usually Ok.

 

[mcycle12]

Thanks for all your guidance. The lowest on the pecking order has been bloodied a few times and takes a wide berth from the other chickens. Three of the four have their whole bottoms bare, from the vent up past their legs. The blinders were the last effort to stop the pecking. That solution did not work, so I'm just going to let them be chickens and hopefully it will work out.

 

[mcycle12]

Here's a video of the chickens before the peepers were taken off. You can see how lethargic they are. I assume it's because of lack of food/nourishment. Take notice of the barred rock on the left. The skin on her butt is bright red. Could that be from some kind of allergic reaction to something? The other bare butts look pale, like the skin of chicken you would buy at the grocery store. What should I focus on to isolate things in order to see what, if anything is causing an allergic reaction?