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- #11
Mzweeres
Hatching
Thank you so much! Your reply and suggestions are wonderful! We did use the purple goo. It is a different brand then you stated but it is basically the same thing. That has failed unfortunately. They are on a good diet and do have room and have been given good distractions! We did try homemade saddles but they wouldn't stay on, plus it is hot here in Alabama so that is tough. I ordered the small peepers today so I think we will try them. I'm hoping they will work. If not, we may have to remove them completely from the other 8, as much as I hate it. Hopefully the peepers do the trick! Thanks again!Yikes! You are doing the right thing intervening! I am a big fan of pinless peepers if the chickens are drawing blood?
5 steps I recommend for picking problems:
1-Blu-Kote (a purple spray that both disinfects the area and hides it from other chickens.) Cover areas that have been picked. Be careful, it will stain your hands and clothes if sprayed on them. It seems to make the other chickens blind to the picked areas.
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2-Address overcrowding/boredom issues (for boredom: try flock blocks, a head of lettuce, make sure they have a good dirt-bathing area etc.)
3-Check nutrition. Are they getting enough protein?
4-If, after a few days, you're not seeing feathers pushing back up in that area, they're still picking and you'll need aprons/saddles for 2-3 weeks. These help because the pickers can't get to the feathers and the pick-ee's can heal. I've also made little "jackets" out of old socks if the birds are small enough and the socks are big enough. The best deterrent to picking is a healthy, full set of feathers.
5-Alternatively, and also if it's too hot in your area for them to wear saddles comfortably this time of year, or if you remove the saddles and they turn back to picking even if you've looked at overcrowding/boredom relief/nutrition, I've had great success with pinless peepers left on for 1-2 months. This is for the pickers, not the pick-ees. That means you'll have to observe and see who is picking, then give them the goggles for a few weeks, then they seem to stop doing it and goggles can be removed.
The trouble is they may still be too big for your 6 week-olds. There are a couple different styles, so you could try to get the smallest type and see if those work. You would need to be careful that they don't block the nostril completely. Most likely the bigger type will just fall off. Like I said, they work very well to stop picking in adult birds.
After these steps, if you're still having picking problems, you may need to look at removing your pickers from the flock, but I've never had any problems after implementing these 5 steps. Good luck!
