Rooster has bare spot on neck

Ok.....I'm also thinking boredom. :hmm
I recently measured the chicken run and did the math with my current flock and it turns out that each bird has 16.5 sq footage of space. What could be wrong?
Possibly.
Cannibalism doesn't care about space.... What started it is the question. I'd question the feed first. Go up to the highest protein level grain as possible. I'd have them on layer pellets by now, though some wouldn't agree.
 
Possibly.
Cannibalism doesn't care about space.... What started it is the question. I'd question the feed first. Go up to the highest protein level grain as possible. I'd have them on layer pellets by now, though some wouldn't agree.
I was told I could keep them on grower/starter and oyster shell their entire lives because I had a rooster in the flock and it would work perfectly fine.
 
I was told I could keep them on grower/starter and oyster shell their entire lives because I had a rooster in the flock and it would work perfectly fine.
No. You can, but shouldn't. I've fed layer pellets to rooster before, and they were fine. The protein is more important. Whenever my birds didn't have the layer pellets early, I had problems, and some wasn't to be fixed...
 
No. You can, but shouldn't. I've fed layer pellets to rooster before, and they were fine. The protein is more important. Whenever my birds didn't have the layer pellets early, I had problems, and some wasn't to be fixed...
Ok. I'll switch asap. Is it ok to give them layer crumble at first since they're used to crumble?
 
Ok. I'll switch asap. Is it ok to give them layer crumble at first since they're used to crumble?
I wean them. Just a little of pellets mixed in at first, then add a little bit more every feeder fill time. (One scoop to first feeder time, then two, then three, until they're completely switched.)
 
I had a chicken that feather plucked. She was named Feather, ironically. In less than an hour she pulled all the feathers off of another ~ 6 wk old pullet. Like the entire back half of her back. Your rooster is definitely getting feather plucked. I tried isolation for the aggressor, but it didn't work for us. My solution was to rehome Feather. However, I was feeding 18% Purina Flock raiser, free choice grit, they were in a permanently covered run, and none of mine are old enough to lay yet.

If you find a solution for the behavior, please let me know, cause I suspect that now my rooster and a few older (3.5 month) hens are doing this, although not to the extent Feather was doing it. The older chickens have free choice eggshells in addition to 18% protein flock raiser (Purina) and grit. They have plenty of protein, grit, calcium, and lots of other feathers in the run they could eat (molting? heat?), so not sure why they'd be plucking feathers from each other.
 

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