Poor Polish Crested Continues to get Pecked!

[doIreallylikeeggsthismuch]

I have thirteen chickens that are 21 weeks old. I have two polish crested hens amongst many other breeds. One polish has gotten picked on since she was a baby. She currently only has part of her beautiful top hat. They continue and continue to peck at her. Sometimes making her bleed but never allowing any growth. Does anyone have a suggestion besides seperation as to how I can save her top hat.

 

[Whitehouse Quail]

Seperation is the only way to go I'm afraid. (At least in my opinion.) I had a roo like that, but his got pecked so severely one night that his crown never brew back right.

I would seperate her before it gets to be too late!

 

[sourland]

Trimming their crests so that they can see their attackers better sometimes helps, but that sort of defeats the purpose of having Polish.

 

[midget_farms]

I had the same issue - had to put the polish in a seperate pen all together for awhile.

Then I trimmed the feathers around the eyes so they can see better (not well) & I took out the head 3 hens. They were verly old anyway so not really a loss.

They all get along well now - except my polish keep getting eaten by other things.

 

[pouletdile]

how does one trim the crest? i have two and they get along with all the other chicks but the are constantly flying into things and one doesn't even come out into the yard- she pretty much stays in the coop.

 

[midget_farms]

I sat down with a pair of scissors. Be careful because there is a huge lump under those feathers that other chickens don't have. You dont want to cut them.

Honestly - by just looking at them you can't tell I trimmed them, but they sure can see better.

Just go around the side of the crest & trim only a couple feathers at a time. Go slow as they don't like it & will squirm.

Good luck - mine have been integrated with the rest of the flock for a while now with no problems.

 

[ThePolishPrincess]

If that doesn't work (which it might not...if my issue was that simple, I would have solved my problem forever ago) you might want to first consider who the peckers are. If there are only a few, sometimes getting rid of them can help. We did that. Our flock was peaceful for about 2 years and then-WHAM! Birds got curious with the Polish and when they started losing feathers. Never happened before that. I tried everything-trimming, hot-pick, more protein (chickens will sometimes pick feathers when they don't have enough protein in their diet, as feathers and blood contain protein), separating, and maybe more. Nothing really worked.

At our last resort, I got rid of the pickers. I watched for weeks, and gathered up those who were hurting my babies. Then, we collected the 5 worst ones, and gave them to a friend of ours who had no Polish. Now, we have some very minor pecking. It's kind of a 'wrong place at the wrong time' deal. If they get too close to a bad bird they get the end of it and walk away with a feather less than they had. But it's better than nothing. We didn't want to separate our whole flock, and we didn't want to part with our Polish, they're my favorites. Hence my username.

Whatever you do, good luck. Here's a good link for trimming. Just scroll down until you find it.

http://polishchooks.com/chooks_problems.html