Polish crest-taping FAIL

[KBrammell]

(photo 1 sort of shows her bald patch; photo 2 shows halfway point of removing the tape)

My young golden polish developed a bald spot on the back of her head. In reading through forums I chalk it up to being from getting pecked by the others. No blood but definitely missing feathers.

The overwhelming advice seemed to be to tape the crest to be up & out of her line of view— using blue painters tape. I followed the advice only my painter tape is green....immediately my bird seemed more distressed than she did without the tape. She scratched at the tape and shook trying to rid herself of the annoyance. That behavior drew the interest of the other birds and they ran over to peck at the tape!

So...poor decision, right? I’ll just remove the tape, right? Well, the tape was really stuck to the feathers, and removing it was obviously painful. After a few attempts, I finally got the tape completely off although I plucked out two feathers in the process. Ugh, She hates me.

Does anyone know alternative methods for preventing head pecking. My heart is in the right place... Is there a significant risk in just leaving her be with a stupid hairdo provided there is no blood? I just want to keep her happy/healthy. She’s no showbird.

 

[Eggcessive]

I trimmed my polish chickens’ feathers around their eyes so they could see better. But for pecking of the head feathers, you just need to watch for it, and use some BluKote on the head to color the bare spot. Pine tar or Nustock cream can be applied as well to discourage pecking.