Okay. I just give up. I've tried everything, and now I have three more feather-pickers, and they're all giving the rooster a buzz-cut.
First it was Geobett, an eighteen-month old SS hen, who was working on Penrod's neck feathers. I installed pinless peepers on her a month ago, and I thought I had the problem curbed. But the roo's neck feathers kept getting whittled away. Today, I noticed his saddle feathers are beginning to disappear, and Geobett's two sisters, also eighteen-month old SS hens, were joining with Geobett, who's still sporting peepers, in eating Penrod's feathers.
He just stands still and permits them to have their way with him. I've tried squirting eucalyptus oil on his feathers, and it didn't help. My neighbor crocheted Penrod a lovely neck gator in a teal blue to compliment his gold and rust-colored feathers, and he was so miserable in it, I had to take it off.
So, the only thing left to do is kill the three culprits. No, I'm just kidding! I removed Penrod from the hens' pen, and he's now back in the rooster pen. I hated to do it, but I see no other alternative at this point. Perhaps a month or so away from his tormentors will cause them to forget about shaving his feathers, and he can return.
I'm afraid that now that Penrod's out of their reach, the three feather-pickers may turn on the other hens. I can only keep an eye out for this.
So to summarize everything I've tried to solve this feather-picking problem, for the benefit of late-comers to this thread who haven't read the entire twenty-two pages, I've tried upping their protein, flock blocks, hanging cabbages and jumbo carrots, installing pinless peepers on the culprits, Blu-kote, Rooster-booster, Forco pre-biotic supplement, and finally, a high protein feed with Forco added to it. And the flock has no shortage of space, so crowding is not an issue.
Oh, and Flo, the original feather-picker, is still in jail so she can't pick feathers off everyone's hides.
Like I said, I just give up.
