SchwartzLakeFarmNC
Songster
Good morning fellow chicken enthusiast, I have a Blue Egger Pullet who is almost 1 year old now, she has 5 other sisters 4 EE's and Biel. We have a 6x6 coop with a 8x12 run, that opens up to a 15x65 free range area full of jungle gyms, perches and things any chicken would love to scratch in.
We feed all flock 20% protein with oyster shell on the side along with crush egg shells. 1 time a week we also give as a treat, yogurt, calf manna and either Tuna or another meat protein.
This bird began by pulling all the beard feathers from one of our EE's so we put "glasses" on her and kept them on her for about 6 weeks, the EE's beard started to grow back during this time, we also sprayed everyone with Anti-Pick just in case others got the wrong idea. There were no other issues with the feather pulling of beards, we did have 1 other EE pick some bum feathers so she has "glasses" now. We took the "glasses" off the Blue Egger on Friday evening and by Sunday, she had pulled all the feathers off another EE's beard, she is completely naked on the neck now.....
I believe this Blue Egger is trying to go broody as well, which has nothing to do with her feather picking issue, but other than leaving the "glasses" on full time, using anti-pick products or rehoming her, has anyone had success in correcting this trait she has now started? We've watch her in the past just pluck a feather off the beard while the EE's just stand there an take it, never moving out her way. She is probably the top girl, no roosters, and everyone else gets along fine, no bullying or fights of any sort. We plan to use Vicks Vapor on the girls without beards just as a pre-caution as I read on here that using the vapor rub helped others on this site.
Any advice or ideas that worked for you would be appreciated.
We feed all flock 20% protein with oyster shell on the side along with crush egg shells. 1 time a week we also give as a treat, yogurt, calf manna and either Tuna or another meat protein.
This bird began by pulling all the beard feathers from one of our EE's so we put "glasses" on her and kept them on her for about 6 weeks, the EE's beard started to grow back during this time, we also sprayed everyone with Anti-Pick just in case others got the wrong idea. There were no other issues with the feather pulling of beards, we did have 1 other EE pick some bum feathers so she has "glasses" now. We took the "glasses" off the Blue Egger on Friday evening and by Sunday, she had pulled all the feathers off another EE's beard, she is completely naked on the neck now.....
I believe this Blue Egger is trying to go broody as well, which has nothing to do with her feather picking issue, but other than leaving the "glasses" on full time, using anti-pick products or rehoming her, has anyone had success in correcting this trait she has now started? We've watch her in the past just pluck a feather off the beard while the EE's just stand there an take it, never moving out her way. She is probably the top girl, no roosters, and everyone else gets along fine, no bullying or fights of any sort. We plan to use Vicks Vapor on the girls without beards just as a pre-caution as I read on here that using the vapor rub helped others on this site.
Any advice or ideas that worked for you would be appreciated.