Pecking Problems - No More Eggs

[tikitiki]

I have a flock of five hens: one EE, one silver cuckoo marans, and three red stars. They are all one year old, and have all been laying for a while now (the EE started a few weeks ago). Just this week we stopped getting eggs. I noticed that all of the hens but the EE appear to have had all of the feathers ripped off of their butts (right below their vents - kind of between their legs), so I assume that the EE is pecking the rest of them (we have seen the EE pecking the others). Could this be what is causing none of them to lay eggs??? How do I fix this?

PLEASE HELP!

 

[Den in Penn]

If it is feather picking, upping their protein should help. If you are feeding anything in addition to their feed, try to lean towards the higher protein items. Providing them with something to do, like a pile of leaves or straw to scratch through in the run might help It is also possible that they are doing a molt. That would explain the lack of eggs. Have they lost any feathers anywhere other then the rear end?

 

[tikitiki]

Thanks so much for the advise! I'll put some hay and leaves in their run, because it has turned into quite a mud pit this winter! I also read about making them a flock block to peck at - I'm going to bake some up today. There are no other feathers missing, and I checked for parasites, etc. Could it still be molting? They were all laying - it actually recently increased with the longer days. The problem seemed to happen about a week after my EE started laying. After 2 eggs, she stopped laying in the nesting box, and was laying in the corner of the coop. Then we noticed she started "bullying" the other girls a bit - pecking at them as they were leaving the coop. She was always the sweetest, but I don't know if starting to lay did something. She is just a year old.