Feather pecking

BabyBantam

BabyBantam

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Interesting behaviour going on in the coop this weekend. Both girls in full lay and get on like a house on fire... However there seems to be a sudden feather pecking mania? Nancy has plucked all the feathers from the back of Mildred's head, and Nancy is starting to look like a poodle with a ring of feathers missing around her neck, so her head looks like its on a lollipop stick!
Is this normal, due to them both fighting for the single nest that seems to be in the box (last year they built a nest each), boredom in the run, or something else? They don't seem to be fighting and are still best friends and when watched, seem quite happy to submit themselves to the pecking by being passive.
Little peskies have also discovered how to 'fly' and have hopped out of their run and demolished my bed of overwintering seedlings :D daughter spent about twenty minutes chasing them around trying to get them to go back in their run.
 
feather pecking is normally down to boredom ,mine have plenty to do but one of the favs has now decided to go round her 2 other sisters in turn and start pulling out thier feathers and although i have only seen her do the neck feathers i'm postive its her pulling out the legs feathers as well and thats really annoying as they then bleed i am for ever spraying them at the mo but now i am doubting moving them as i was looking at putting the 3 favs and 2 cuckoo marans into a slighty smaller run but i am wandering if this will cause the probelm to get worse .
 
I hang things in their coop; a shiny old cd, sometimes a sprig of brockali....it seems to do the trick!
My 2 young girls keep flying out of their side of the garden - they have a coop and enclosed run, and then we have fenced off half the garden ( so the boys can play football without getting covered in droppings!)Ok, the fence is low but the older girls know to stay put but the other two always fly over :roll:
 
Think boredom may have something to do with it. Today they've started digging a hole, which they've never done before. They have a dust bath in thir run, but don't seem interested in cabbages or any chicken treat type blocks hung in the run. They don't have any height to enable me to put in any sort of platform. Any other ideas to keep them busy?
 
Don't know what you feed them but if it is pellets then consider switching over to mash, it takes longer for them to eat and fill up and so less time to look for other ways to occupy themselves, if you are already doing that then perhaps think about removing their feeder altogether and scattering food a couple of times a day so that they have to scratch about and forage for it, apparently this has been shown in studies to reduce feather pecking.
 
Meal can help for the reasons given i.e. it takes them longer to fill up on meal than pellets which keeps them occupied.
 
I feed them mash, with crushed mealworms in it to make them hunt through it to find the goodies. They totally refuse to eat pellets of any sort. It's difficult to scatter feed in the run though, as I move the ark regularly across the lawn and they already leave a lot of waste in the grass from the feeders - we back onto a railway and I have to be careful not to have food excess due to rats that come in from the waste ground. They get let out when I get home from work, but not as regularly S I would like. The pecking seems to be taking place within the ark more than in the run from what I've seen today, definitely nancy that is being pecked more. I'm also not able to separate them, so a bit frustrated today :(
 
Feather pecking has started again. Chooks have had the run of garden and patio for four days now, so not a bordom issue. Mildred is systematically plucking Nancy's neck of all feathers from head down. I've sprayed poor nancy daily with anti peck, but only seems to make nancy clean herself and ingest the stuff herself... Mildred just carries on. She seems to sneak up on her and take a poke, then when nancy doesn't move, she has another and more persistent go.
Do I need to separate them (will be hard with one coop and only 2 birds) or should I be using purple spray? As there are only the 2 of them, not sure if separating them will help in the long run. :(
 
Just a thought, you say they were fighting over the nest box. Is one about to go broody and trying to keep the other one away?
Can you separate them within sight of each other for a few days?
 
Have you read Valerie's post today, about feather pecking and beak bits! See http://poultrykeeperforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=7907 it might help, and there are other posts on here about beak bits if you try the search box.
 
They are pekin bantams, would beak bits not be too large? They are also not fighting over the nest box any more, the pecking seems to go on outdoors as that's where all the feathers Are. They are both in lay now and seem happy to share to box. Mildred's currently doing the strangest poos too, but not sure if this is connected or not - loads of milky coloured liquid.
 
The poo could be crop bound from eating feathers -we've had that. They eat feathers from a protein deficiency or small space and boredom, so are you sure their feed is good or they have enough space?
 
Feather pecking usually starts with boredom or just curiosity but there is no doubt that they love the taste of the feathers. Beak bits are applied to young pheasants in the brooders so should be OK for bantams.
 
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Just for the record, I have a run that is 3.80m by 1.30m with a huge house upstairs for the 2 girls. I also give them the run of the garden when I'm home and move the ark weekly so they have fresh found constantly. I was told that this set up was more than enough for 4 bantams, so was I told wrong Chris?

They are on Garvo / Dobson and Harrell layers mash with tomato and apple as treats.
 
Space looks certainly enough BB and feed sounds right. Think the Bumpa beak bits would be too big as you say. I'm at a bit of a loss here. Obviously you are doing everything you can and correctly. We have 4 bantams permanently in less space- 4 square metres. Difference is we have a cockerel and a perch so there is 3 dimensions and Boris sorts them out if they get stroppy. Perhaps more interaction with them? So let the top hen know you are the top hen.
 
Do you think adding 2 new pekins to the flock this summer might be a good idea and help with the pecking? I'm a bit worried about disease issues baring in mind I lost my first 4. These 2 have been with me 2 years now and seem as healthy as horses apart from the blip which antibiotics cleared up.
I'll try adding a perch somehow and see what happens.

Mildred is obviously top hen, but is completely tame and squats for me every time I want to catch her. I also grab her every time she starts pecking. Bit difficult to make more contact as I spend all day at work and already a slave to dog walking and hens at weekends.... Love every moment, so not a chore!
 
It really hasn't got anything to do with dominance except that sometimes the top hens don't get plucked but that's not always the case.
I can't see that adding more would help and would reduce the space available too though I think it's OK, especially as they are out a lot.
 
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