I had three Russian orloff young hens that I accidentely bought thinking I was getting RIRs from the feed store. They are interesting birds but they tend to escape from my pen so they have been problematic. They are somewhat lower on the pecking order than the other hens but I don't see alot of pushiness by my other hens, the orloffs are just real skittish.
I'm not sure exactly why, but they seem to want to peck at their own backsides. Occasionally I've had to seperate them from the other birds because they will peck themselves bloody and when the other birds see, they want to all peck that bird like crazy.
I don't have this problem with my other two breeds, RIR and BO, all have nice fuzzy butts.
I've already lost one of the orloffs. It kept flying out of the coop and one of my dogs had it in its mouth for a few seconds. I'm not sure if it was injured or if more of the back-side-pecking got the other birds started, but the other chickens pecked it all bloody. We kept it inside a day or two but finally decided to end its misery. After my husband butchered it, he tried to salvage the meat and found the back side all slimy and rotten and we ended up throwing out the carcass.
One of the two remaining birds has now pecked itself like crazy and I'm wondering if there is anything I can put on it, or if this is a breed problem, or what could be causing this?????
I'm not sure exactly why, but they seem to want to peck at their own backsides. Occasionally I've had to seperate them from the other birds because they will peck themselves bloody and when the other birds see, they want to all peck that bird like crazy.
I don't have this problem with my other two breeds, RIR and BO, all have nice fuzzy butts.
I've already lost one of the orloffs. It kept flying out of the coop and one of my dogs had it in its mouth for a few seconds. I'm not sure if it was injured or if more of the back-side-pecking got the other birds started, but the other chickens pecked it all bloody. We kept it inside a day or two but finally decided to end its misery. After my husband butchered it, he tried to salvage the meat and found the back side all slimy and rotten and we ended up throwing out the carcass.
One of the two remaining birds has now pecked itself like crazy and I'm wondering if there is anything I can put on it, or if this is a breed problem, or what could be causing this?????
