Pinless Peepers Success

[revmarcie]

Friends, We have now done something we worried over doing but had no choice. Our girls are terrible feather pickers and feather eaters. All ten of our girls now have peepers on them. They adapted immediately to eating and drinking and jumping around on their roosts. I would recommend if you have to do this, do it to all your chickens at the same time, not just one or two. In our case it was imperative and now, I am truly glad we did it because they did not get hurt or traumatized. I do not know yet if they will learn how to drink from nipple waterers but will post back again in the future, if so. Currently they have water bowls and food bowls. Just thought I'd let you all know of our success.

 

[azygous]

Glad to hear the peepers are working! I've had to resort to them in the past when all other measures had failed. You may be able to remove them in a couple months from now. That's usually long enough to disrupt a stubborn habit.

I've found that spring is the worst time for picking for some reason. Also, some pickers seem to have a wiring problem in their brains, and nothing will cure that. However, I may have stumbled onto a fix for that.

I took feed sacks and stuffed them with straw and stapled them closed. My one remaining hard picking case now satisfies her urge to pick and peck by picking at the feed sack. I know this is satisfying her urges since she spends a lot of time working over her stuffed feed sack.

The chickens who don't use it as a surrogate for picking feathers enjoy lounging on the stuffed sacks. Chickens enjoy "plush". Who-da thunk?