My chickens are starting to pluck each others fearthers out and eat them. They mostly pick at the base of the tail on each other and the hens pick at the roosters comb. They eat Layena and oyster shell as well as scraps from the kitchen and when the weather is better they free range when I am home. Are they missing something in their diet? When I was growing up I remember this happening and when we gave them oyster shell the problem stopped. Any ideas on what to try?
I've written numerous threads on this behaviour. Heres what was said more protein, overcrowded, boredom, freerange & pinless peepers .My roo was picking the hens vent feathers & feeding them back to the girls. Well, the girls caught on & started doing the same. The girls started picking his vent feathers as well. The vent area started getting raw so I put blue kote on the picked areas. Then I found a product made from rooster booster & applied that as well. I also bought some Manna Pro Poultry Conditioner which is 22% protein. I've also been feeding them more meat IE venision, fish, chicken etc.. I ran out of rooster booster so I applied more blue kote on the girls vent well the next day I noticed the roos beak was purple. So, I removed him to my other coop. This was done three days ago. I have not seen the girls pecking since. I am gonna purchase the pinless peepers for future problems. If you find the answer please let me know. Thanks & Good Luck.
