Unknown reason for hens constant feather pecking

[lazy gardener]

Morgan, are you in the U.S. or are you in the southern hemisphere? I can tell you one thing that will cause a chicken to eat eggs is this: her diet is not adequate to meet her needs. Then the shells become weak. Chickens are opportunistic and it's a self preservation thing to eat any egg that breaks in the nest. A broken egg that is not cleaned up would attract predators. And that weak egg might just as well be used by the chicken to boost her own health.

A sitting hen will eat any egg that does not contain a viable embryo. Same thing: keep the nest clean, and help prevent predators.

Often egg eating is a seasonal thing, most frequently seen at the end of a laying cycle, when calcium reserves are used up, and the shells become weak. It's also seen at the end of the winter.

IMO, feeding eggs to the flock is more likely to PREVENT egg eating than it is to cause it. (because it gives them the protein they need.) I give egg shells to my birds ALL THE TIME. This is also considered to "cause egg eating". I do not grind the egg shells up. Or wash them. I simply toss them on the ground, and stomp them with my foot. Any meat that we don't eat goes to either the dog, or the chickens. I often give them a cooked chicken or turkey carcass to clean up. And NO, this does not turn them into cannibals!

Finally, I do believe that a hen who is protein deficient would lay smaller eggs. Before collecting hatching eggs, I put my flock on multi vitamins. It makes a huge difference in the quality of the entire egg: shell and membrane strength, yolk size and color, yolk membrane strength, fewer blood spots, larger eggs.

I believe the feather picking you are seeing may be related to a deficient diet. That being said, once feather picking starts, it can become a habit that can only be fixed by removing the feather picker from the flock.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

Tried fruit and veg the only thing they go after is watermelon . coop and run are heavy so not moveable but they do free range in a large like 1,000sqft yard and love the bugs in it. I was told never to feed them any kind of meat or eggs as the people who told me this ened up with egg eaters or cannibalism in their flock so I'm weary of feeding eggs and meat.

Let me remind you to never buy replacement birds from the people who offered you this advise. Obviously they don't know doodle squat about chickens.

 

[Lazy Farmer]

I have a hen who started to feather peck maybe a month and a half ago, as soon as it started we used the feather pecking sprays on the market after 2 weeks of 4x daily use on all of the birds we were told by our neighbour that he see's our Rhode rock pecking the others 5 girls that's including our alpha who in turns chases her and tries to get her.

The last 3 weeks we have been using Stockholm tar 1-2 times a week as it goes on quite thick and goodness me does it stinks it smells like medicated shampoo it seemed to be working then I found a bald patch on one of my girls and my neighbor said he keeps seeing the same one pecking even with the tar on.

I have cleaned and removed the one just in case and will tar her in a few days.

They have fresh water and food they have apple cider vinegar w garlic as well as a multi vitamin with sea weed added to their water and a poultry spice added to their food they have access to flint and oyster shell any the free range all but 2 hrs at most a day as we have a lab who goes out maybe 15-30mins 3-4 times a day to do his business.

I have no clue what more I can do to stop this dumb hen from feather pecking short of rehoming her or well if with her head which I don't really want to do either as she is a good layer and lays a egg every day since she started laying. And suggestions?

I separate alpha hens. Actually segregation. Total free range without hen house security. I place a box outside the egg house so I can still collect eggs. After time, some of the hens that were next in line as far as the peck order is concerned, take over that position with less aggression. When some time goes by. Chuck the bad @$$ bully hen back in with the new barn bosses and she has lost a lot of pee and vinegar that fired her on all cylinders. Of course the new barn bosses eventually have to be reprimanded as such. A viscous cycle. I have hens attack my roos because I pamper them and robbed them from natural aggressiveness.
Our swine and goats give is far less alpha boss situations.

 

[Mysimplewyominglife]

Let me remind you to never buy replacement birds from the people who offered you this advise. Obviously they don't know doodle squat about chickens.

My great grandmother is one person who told me to never feed eggs or meat and she had chickens almost her whole life so you telling me she knew nothing? Lets also remember lots of ppl have different experiences of feeding animals eggs and meat some positive some negative. My layers are of course on a layers diet and the get a multi vitamin added to their water. So how can I be sure is a poor diet that is making 1 bird feather peck as I would have thought more would be doing it if that was the case. Also my alpha is not aggressive unless she is getting her feathers plucked and my alpha is the only one the feather pecker won't really go for.

 

[Mysimplewyominglife]

Also I live in the UK now thought I stated it must not have. There are loads of helpful items that are hard to find in the UK like pinless peepers and the anti crow collar. The list goes on I'm sure.

Also I read that stress can cause hens to have small eggs, lay less often and stop laying altogether. So I guess how do know if it's diet, stress or just a jerk of a bird as it's just the one who is a issue and she ain't even in the head bird she is like the one of the last 3 in the peck order.

 

[Pork Pie]

http://articles.extension.org/pages...nibalism-in-small-and-backyard-poultry-flocks

 

[Mysimplewyominglife]

http://articles.extension.org/pages...nibalism-in-small-and-backyard-poultry-flocks

I would like to point out beak trimming is not banned in the UK. I even did a search to double check ppl have wanted it ban since 2011 but from what I have read it never was put in place and even now ppl are pushing for it in the UK. I would let to state that 2 of my girls have their upper beaks trimmed the rest do not.

This hen has only started doing this in the last month- month and a half before that no issues at all with her and she is the only one doing it no one else, someone is laying small eggs but can't confirm if it's the feather pecker or not.

 

[chickengr]

My great grandmother is one person who told me to never feed eggs or meat and she had chickens almost her whole life so you telling me she knew nothing? Lets also remember lots of ppl have different experiences of feeding animals eggs and meat some positive some negative. My layers are of course on a layers diet and the get a multi vitamin added to their water. So how can I be sure is a poor diet that is making 1 bird feather peck as I would have thought more would be doing it if that was the case. Also my alpha is not aggressive unless she is getting her feathers plucked and my alpha is the only one the feather pecker won't really go for.

at your great grandmother times people didn't feed their chickens as we do today. it might have been an excuse just to have more eggs and meat for people. she learned it from her parents, etc.

I also have cousins that are younger than me and they told me not to feed eggs to the chickens. I do, all the time. they eat only eggs that get broken in the nest.

a friend of mine has told me that he had a feather picking hen. he gave her bacon for a few days and she never again caused a problem.

 

[Mysimplewyominglife]

at your great grandmother times people didn't feed their chickens as we do today. it might have been an excuse just to have more eggs and meat for people. she learned it from her parents, etc.

I also have cousins that are younger than me and they told me not to feed eggs to the chickens. I do, all the time. they eat only eggs that get broken in the nest.

a friend of mine has told me that he had a feather picking hen. he gave her bacon for a few days and she never again caused a problem.

My great grandmother was raised with giving chicken scraps from the house as a child mind you this woman was born round 1920 give or take and living on a farm. She saw cannibalism and feather pecking even when loads of food was given. When she grew older had her own flock she feed scraps and found they pecked and tried to eat each other as she put it. When she was able to buy already made food that issue stopped. It's not about how a person was raised its about what worked for them and what they learned. Like I said lots say it worked for them others say they had issues.

 

[Wickedchicken6]

Morgan, are you in the U.S. or are you in the southern hemisphere? I can tell you one thing that will cause a chicken to eat eggs is this: her diet is not adequate to meet her needs. Then the shells become weak. Chickens are opportunistic and it's a self preservation thing to eat any egg that breaks in the nest. A broken egg that is not cleaned up would attract predators. And that weak egg might just as well be used by the chicken to boost her own health.

A sitting hen will eat any egg that does not contain a viable embryo. Same thing: keep the nest clean, and help prevent predators.

Often egg eating is a seasonal thing, most frequently seen at the end of a laying cycle, when calcium reserves are used up, and the shells become weak. It's also seen at the end of the winter.

IMO, feeding eggs to the flock is more likely to PREVENT egg eating than it is to cause it. (because it gives them the protein they need.) I give egg shells to my birds ALL THE TIME. This is also considered to "cause egg eating". I do not grind the egg shells up. Or wash them. I simply toss them on the ground, and stomp them with my foot. Any meat that we don't eat goes to either the dog, or the chickens. I often give them a cooked chicken or turkey carcass to clean up. And NO, this does not turn them into cannibals!

Finally, I do believe that a hen who is protein deficient would lay smaller eggs. Before collecting hatching eggs, I put my flock on multi vitamins. It makes a huge difference in the quality of the entire egg: shell and membrane strength, yolk size and color, yolk membrane strength, fewer blood spots, larger eggs.

I believe the feather picking you are seeing may be related to a deficient diet. That being said, once feather picking starts, it can become a habit that can only be fixed by removing the feather picker from the flock.

I think breed can strongly influence how aggressive a chicken is. I also think it can depend on the heritability of certain temperaments within all breeds of chickens.

Before I start, I own docile, easy going heritage breeds. I think this helps.
But it can't be all of it.

I believe the same things as Lazy Gardener. I had some feather eating (eating feather from the floor) the first year we had chickens. That's been the closest I've come to feather picking. I feed a 21% chick starter to the entire flock, but it is strictly vegetarian based...so no animal proteins, unfortunately. I don't feel that this 21% provides the necessary elements of what the chickens require.

Below I listed a link to a small thread I found. It's not what I was searching for...but it touches on the discussion of animal protein.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/animal-protein.936645/

I am one who feeds whole raw eggs to my flock. I crack them before I toss so they'll break open. I feed all my floor and dirty eggs. I also feed the over stocks of eggs I seem to acquire. My 60+hens and dozen guineas get fed 1-4 dozen eggs several times a week, sometimes daily. I can leave eggs on the ground or in the nests and I have not seen any egg eaters develop yet. I have seen and do fully expect them to eat a soft shelled egg, if a soft shelled egg is produced and a hen steps on it and breaks it open. It's a chicken's nature to clean that up. But as far as going around looking for eggs to break open and eat...it doesn't happen here. If I toss eggs that don't break open...the hens run up to the egg, see it's not broken and come back to me looking disappointed...lol.

I don't experience egg eating, feather picking, flesh picking, blood picking or dead chicken picking or eating. This sounds strange...but yes, I've tested.

I can trim feathers, different types of feathers drop off and lay around and I haven't seen any feather eating since that first year. I had a hen get a few feathers broken off from the roosters, (she's white with dark skin) and I had a young rooster (pure white with white skin) that had a couple feathers broken off by another pen mate. The hen had exposed, obvious flesh and the rooster had red blood all over his tail and the feathers bled if touched. I observed but did not intervene in both cases. The rest of the birds noticed and even took close up looks but I did not have to paint, coat or segregate. The birds were left in the coop. This was last fall when I had 140+ birds in a 12x20 coop. (60 bird size)

I've also had a bird pass this spring in cool weather with an exposed vent showing and one passed a couple weeks ago from peritonitis. I left the one that passed in the cold weather in the coop for a week...just as a test. She remained untouched...and got covered by shavings in the end.

Since I do this with a number of chickens and a volume of eggs, I wanted to give my experience since I believe I'm one of the few (okay, maybe the only one) that does this...lol.

To be honest my grandmother can't believe I feed eggs like this. She tells me they'll eat eggs. I tell her they eat eggs everyday...when I feed eggs to them. She just shakes her head.

She's told me how they used to break broodies under a tub in the heat. It took more than a day... I don't know how they didn't kill the hen in the heat. I just broke about 10 broodies in a day by cleaning the chicken coop, removing the eggs and taking the broodies off the nests that evening and putting them on the roost in the back pen of the coop. Everyone but one was done. And she just clucked for a couple of days.

I respect your decision. We just don't want your problem to get any worse.