SOS Polish almost pecked to death, is there any way to prevent this?

[becky3086]

Any of my hens will hide if there are too many roosters who are too aggressive.
I am keeping all my Polish, houdan, spitz etc. in separate pens.

 

[rowan1]

wow. july 8th i received my order from mcmurray and got a free wcp. way too cute! but when the feathers began to come in on the crest, she started getting pecked. whenever i see blood/new peck i spray w/ blu kote and she's good for a couple of days. i'm hoping as her feathers come in the pecking will stop. i hope i hope. if i seperate her she'll be alone. darn, i'll have to get her a friend

 

[Germaine_11.20]

AHHHHH

so... I go out to the pen tonight and guess what is huddling in the corner of the run and not moving? My other WCP hen. I thought she was dead.
She wasn't there when I threw the scratch in and then, there she was. Trying to get away and be invisible. So she went into the dog kennel with the other hen.
By the time I got back out I could see the poor WCP roo running all over the run trying to keep away from the mean hens who were now trying to peck him.
He is in the kennel too. Sigh

 

[Andora]

My white crested Polish also always get pecked. It happens at night in the coops. Oddly, it's only the white crested ones. I've never had an issue with the blue Polish rooster, or any of my other crested breeds with non-white crests. My crevecoeurs and spitz have had no issue, they all have black crests. I have a white polish ad 2 wc blue ones that have little friar tuck hair-do's going on from being pecked over night.

It looks horrible but other than that they seem to be doing fine.

We're planning on moving soon, and when we do I want to set up a crested pen for breeding so that they can also have their own coop.

 

[Germaine_11.20]

Yes, My DH and I just made a small coop. It was going to be for some of the chicks I have been hatching, but it will most likely be for the Polish.
My husband has a tender heart and it really bothered him to see the birds hurt her. (He saved her) and he has now called the hen Penny and carries her and pets her. Sweet man. So the coop is theirs.
Funny to see this big buff bodybuilder with this little crested hen.

 

[CamsCluckinChicks]

Hi! I just had to seperate my White Crested Blue Polish Roo from the rest tonight. They are 8 weeks old tomorrow & his crest has been coming in. But he's had a 'bald' spot on the back of his head & his skin was nice & pink. Apparantly, the color attracted at least one of my hens, because when I went out to check on them this evening, he had a little blood too. I removed him & put him in a giant crate (in our garage) for the night. I also have a Golden Polish Hen, but she's only 2 weeks old tomorrow, so she's quarantined with the other 'newbies' for a few more weeks.

I was going to leave my Polish in with the standards & get a Black Silkie Roo for my 2 buff's, 1 white & 1 blue Silkie hens. Might have to rethink this after reading this thread. Maybe I should forego the Silkie roo & put my Polish & Silkie's together instead...? Has anyone had any luck with that combination??

Thanks!

 

[Nostalchic]

I have had the same problem with my 'free exotic' WCBP, a roo, go figure. DO NOT put Vicks on their heads to try to prevent picking, it is actually quite toxic, chickens are very sensitive, and I almost killed my little Puff trying to save him. What has worked for me (one little Polish roo in a flock of 30 big pullets):
I washed his head in the sink with the sink sprayer and baby shampoo, applied some bacitracin (antibiotic ointment) and pulled all his crest feathers into a little topknot, using 2 tiny rubber bands (made for horse braids) to keep it in place. This covers the picked skin of his head well, allows him to see (wow!a whole world out there), and doesn't seem to attract the attention of the hens as much as the (albeit lovely) flowing white crest feathers do. And I think he looks incredibly cool and hip like this. I've had these stay in 3 weeks at a time - when it's coming out, I do it over. I've put some 'Rooster Booster' on there too, but not sure I needed it. My flock has lots of room to roam, but the picking problems seemed to happen quickly, and while in the coop. Good luck.

 

[Emzyyy]

I wouldn't know my Polish have always done fine, course all my other birds are Bantams and are smaller.

 

[sonew123]

ok you guys are scaring the poops outta me! I have 6-4 week old WCP's 2 are roos for sure big waddles and comb's. Giving one away this week-am I going to have to have a seperate pen and coop for these guys?? I hatched out a purebred silver laced and her top hat is HUGEEE and gorgeous-also a mix from 2 pure's. With that hatch, I had 25 other babies-they have all been raised together-free range together and have cages they go in at night-I let them choose their own bunk mates They are 4 months old now? and I haven't witnessed any problems except for my polish mix roo-he's a pecker-bigtime. He is left out of the cages at ngiht to roost on top-this all takes place in a very large garage that gets locked up at night. Should I worry about my SL getting pecked??? good grief I wasnt thinking I needed to ass ANOTHER pen and coop-ooh DH will not like this-we have 4 allready oops no 5...oh no,,

 

[KathyR]

I have been noticing a similar situation in my coop. I have 8 Crested Polish and 3 EE's, all raised together since hatching in March. My one EE hen has been picking on the polish, especially when she is on my lap and one comes near.