The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[vpatt]

I've decided that chicken saddles are a good thing. Not only do they protect the hen from the claws and spurs of an amorous rooster, but it would protect her from her neighborhood canniballistic coop mates! I've had chickens for a lot of years and I've never seen this happen before. Yesterday, she had feathers on her back... they were short and broken from the rooster but she had feathers. This morning I saw blood on one of the roosts so I was looking at feet to see if someone had broken a toenail and didn't find one. I didn't look at this hen. She was there this morning, walking around but I didn't notice any injuries. I sure wish I had taken the time to find the bleeder. It might have saved her life. In fact, I'm SURE it would have saved her life. She was only about a year old. I need to make up some saddles and have them on hand. I think they ate at least one of her kidneys!

Oh my! That's terrible.

 

[Lacy Blues]

Lacyblues, so sorry about your hen. Poor baby.

Those pictures are the best reason that everyone should have blue kote on hand. I did, a couple years back, have a very timid ee who as a chick was getting tail feathers pulled and chomped on to the point where her tail was bleeding from the skin. I actually had to use duct tape on her as a last resort - with the blue kote they stopped pecking at the red but it wasn't stopping the feather chomping and there is blood in the quills. I didn't want to separate her, I just needed to get her past the point of those new feather stubs.

The duct tape actually worked pretty well, it would stay on for a few days before it had to be replaced. Looked pretty bizarre, but, that and the blue kote saved her life.

I have blue kote and I also have pick no more lotion. Like I said, she had feathers the day before...so it all took place yesterday.

I would love to see your duct chicken! That sounds pretty amusing.

EE are extremely timid. I got 3 of them from the feed store last year and put them with a good broody. She was only trying to gather them underneath but they thought she was trying to kill them. I have EE eggs in the incubator. I'm hoping that when the hatch with the other yard bird eggs, that they will all be ok together. There needs to be a happy medium. I'm not especially fond of really timid birds and I can't stand bullies!

 

[Leahs Mom]

@Lacy Blues
Are you sure that wasn't a hawk hit where she possibly got away from it?

I had one that appeared to be a hawk hit - though in the neck area - that looked similar. Thankfully I noticed she was walking around looking Dazed (probably in shock) and found it early enough to help her. It was totally hidden under the feathers and I wouldn't have even noticed if she wasn't looking dazed.

Now...I "assumed" it was a hawk hit but didn't see it. There is a little low bench/foot stool thingie they can hide under right outside of their run gate that I found her feathers under and all around so I assumed that she got under it well enough to get away.

However, I guess it i possible that the roo may have mounted her backwards (as I've seen happen from time to time) and maybe spurred her in the neck area...but that probably wouldn't have accounted for the feathers around the area unless he was attacking her in general. She was the bottom of order and was often harassed.... I used to say she was "hawk fodder" because she was always separate from the flock and very skittish in behavior.

 

[Lacy Blues]

No, I'm positive it was the other birds. When I went out to feed yesterday evening, I only noticed one but I'm sure there were more involved, she had a little spatter of blood on her beak. I didn't notice this one missing from the food trough til I went inside to feed the bantams. She was laying on the coop floor by the water dish and had been dead for some time. She was already cold and stiff.

 

[lazy gardener]

So sorry.

 

[Leahs Mom]

So now what will you do? If you know that the flock - or at least one bird - ganged up on one of the other hens, do you take out the offenders or just let things alone?

 

[Lacy Blues]

I'll be watching them closely. I looked at every "body" this morning when I fed and none of them have broken or picked feathers. Hopefully it won't happen again. If it does and I can locate the instigator, it will die.

 

[Shan30]

I'll be watching them closely.  I looked at every "body" this morning when I fed and none of them have broken or picked feathers.  Hopefully it won't happen again.  If it does and I can locate the instigator, it will die.

Ugh, so sorry, it so disturbing when they do nasty stuff to each other.

I'm having a similar problem right now and have found my offenders but I'm not sure what to do because it is all of my polish hens.
Over winter they just decided to stop going outside. We didn't even have snow so it wasn't that, maybe a predator scared them? Either way they spend all day inside and I think this is stemming from boredom. I even moved the food and water outside for two days and I had to carry them outside from them to eat and drink and then they would go straight back in. I then locked everyone out for an entire day and put a nest box outside. Still only one has started going out for short periods of time. Now we are getting constant rain so I'm really losing the battle.

Mostly they are giving the broody girls haircuts but they have made my two four month olds pullets bleed in that exact same spot. (Separated and feathering back in nicely) So now I'm giving one broody some of my pb ameraucana eggs and really want to not have to worry about them with the chicks. The rest of my flock is great with chicks.

So I've tried so far...
Forcing them to be outside and not bored - might work if they would stay out side.
Separating them from the flock - they do this to each other instead.
Separating their victims - they attacked them again as soon as I put them back.
Upped protein percentage in feed - no change.
Bought "Stop-Pick" - opened jar, it was red, didn't even bother.
Added more leaves and mixed in sprouts and hung lettuce - amused them for a few hours

Possibilities to try...
Keep booting them outside,
Animal protein (though really certain this is a learned habit stemming from boredom)
Pinless Peepers??? Had anyone used these?
Cull all my polish?

 

[Lacy Blues]

There is a thread titled "I think I found a miracle cure for feather picking" or something very close to that. As it turns out, she didn't and she/we have tried multiple things including pinless peepers and they work temporarily. However, it seems that every year between spring and fall they start up again.

Have you tried hanging cabbage instead of lettuce? It has a bit more nutrition in it, depending of course, on which variety of lettuce you used.

If it were me, I would pen my polish separate from everybody else and give them cabbage or a toy of sorts with scratch grains inside and a small hole in it so that when they peck it just right, they will receive a reward. A small plastic juice or water bottle would be ideal but it needs to be a sturdier plastic than many of the water bottles out there today. Perhaps a cat toy that is designed to release cat kibble. I probably wouldn't buy one of these but just look at it to get an idea and then make my own.

Or, if you can afford it, maybe give them some raw hamburger once or twice a week.

If those things don't cure it, I don't know what will and I would cull them all.

 

[lalaland]

sorry, I just have to post a pic to move that pic of the poor buff orpington that got eaten alive off the main pic place!

so here is a pointless pic of my cream legbar pullet - think she has just started laying a teensy tiny robins egg blue....