Severe feather picking on one bird only.

[BassBirdie]

I have a R.I. Red, a Barnevelder, and a Barred Rock. They are all 8 months old. They are in a pen with 80 square feet of space, two perches 2' and 3' high, 4 stumps to jump up on, plus a 4 x 4 coop. The R.I. Red, Tikka, one day attacked her best friend, the Barnevelder, Nodda - denuded her back all the way to the base of her tail - in just 24 hours. It looked pretty brutal. I tried the lotion that stops picking but it didn't work. I separated Tikka from the other two, and when I put her back in to go to bed, she made a beeline to Nodda to attack her again. Right now I have the pen divided with mesh so they can all see each other, and I bring Tikka into the coop at night and separate her when they come out in the morning. I tried pinless peepers on her but had to take them off because she wouldn't eat or drink. I switched her food to a higher protein (from 16% to 18%) yesterday on the chance that was the problem. Does anyone have any other ideas on how to manage this, or how long they should be separated? I'm really struggling with this, as I don't want to have to give away one of my birds if I can find a solution.

 

[azygous]

Barnevelders are a docile breed. RIRs and BRs are aggressive breeds. That immediately puts your Barnevelder at a disadvantage. What may be happening is that the naturally aggressive other two have Nodda slipping into a chronic victim role which actually stimulates the others to be even more aggressive.

I've studied this issue in my own flock and have come up with a unique treatment to rehabilitate the victim instead of trying to shift the bullies around, ignoring the victim and her issues that actually contribute to the bullying.

Read this and see if you think it could help in your small flock. https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/chicken-bully-chicken-victim-a-two-sided-issue.73923/

 

[BassBirdie]

That is very helpful. Thank you. I will try it. My Barnevelder was actually supposed to be a different breed - I didn't realize until she fledged out that she was not what I was told.

 

[achiekitty]

That is very helpful. Thank you. I will try it. My Barnevelder was actually supposed to be a different breed - I didn't realize until she fledged out that she was not what I was told.

Good Luck! Keep us posted.