pecking order

[jaredk]

So I had a couple hens eating eggs and after trying everything I could to get them to stop and keep them from teaching all the others they have been culled from the flock. I'm afraid one of them was the top hen and now I've screwed up the pecking order. My two biggest hens are orpingtons and it seems they are now the top hens. I say this because they are the only ones with feathers out of the 8 hens. If I hold one of the other chickens down to try and grab it, these two will fluff up their feathers and completely go after it. What do I do? Will they eventually figure it out and begin growing their feathers back again? I'm afraid some of the others have learned that eggs taste good too so I will be watching very closely.
PS the hens were culled about 1-2 weeks ago

 

[Judy]

From what I've read here, feather picking can be about as hard to break as egg eating. Both things are high in protein. Are ou sure your flock is getting enough protein? Or -- even if the % seems correct, perhaps a supplement for a while would help, anyway.

I'll give you a link or two, written by people who have dealt with this.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/back-to-basic-living-feather-picking-plucking-and-cannibalism

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/697052/i-think-i-found-a-miracle-cure-for-feather-picking/0_20

 

[jaredk]

Hmmm. I did recently mix a bag of scratch in with layer feed. I'll switch back to straight layer pellets and see how they do. Thanks for the good reads!

 

[bobbi-j]

Any time you add or remove chickens from the flock it upsets the pecking order. There are things that can contribute to that - over crowding is one of them. Do they have plenty of space? Do they free range? If they're locked in a coop/run do they have enough room to scratch and peck and dust bathe?