Pecking :/

[galanie]

Usually if no one answers then no one that knows the answer saw the question. I don't know how long, either.

 

[bluestar.ranch]

imho.. too crowded is possible

 

[Chick15]

I care!!! I am sorry. I havent been on in a while!! I am so sorry about your old flock. What sort of tar do you use?? I think i will also try the tea tree oil.

I hear you about having a chicken dinner and starting new. Sometimes I sit outside the run on my bench and look at them and they run all to the opposite corner because they seem to be sooooo terrible scared of me it makes me so very sad. I've lost my entire Flock 2 months ago and had to start from scratch. New hens and all. The flock we've lost where the sweetest most adorable Bantams you could ever own. It still put's tears in my eyes just to think about them....I miss them so much.

Now every morning I sneak in the hen house at 6.30 am grab one after the other and slap some of the tar on their behinds. I just wonder how long I have to do this....but it works ! So I guess until all their feathers are back ? How long does that take ...?
let me know how the tree tea oil works ! Never heard of that one

 

[Cryptkeeper]

Do you mean pine tar soap? I have seen that in the store, or do you mean just pine tar? Where do I get that?( other than my firewood)
We just got some rooster booster pick-no-more, today and giving that a try. Anyone have any feed back on this stuff?

 

[dannifer]

So I am having the same problem only mine is a young rooster thats getting pecked by the hens (mean girls!). They had his beak and foot bleeding. I'm a newbie and have no idea what to do about it or how to treat bleeding injuries. Will it stop on it's own and heal without any help from me? I really want to try the pine tar thing on my aggressive hen but don't know what that is or where to get it. Anyone?

 

[azygous]

Glad this thread got resurrected. It will give me a chance to update my response.

I have had some pretty serious pecking problems. At present, I don't have any. All the pinless peeper wearers have had them removed, and no one has resumed this evil pastime.

What finally solved the pecking problem was a nutritional supplement. I heard about it from neighbor friends who had great luck with it for dogs with poop eating fixations. I thought, why not try it on chickens and see if it will do something for the feather picking.

It's called Forco, and is a horse feed supplement. It's cereal based and my flock gobbles it like they do their scratch grain ration. They get two scoops each morning, free choice, for fourteen hens. Forco.com will have ordering info, or you can call them at 1-866-383-2458 . A five-pound tub is around $25 and lasts a good while. They also sell it in selected feed stores, or maybe your store can order it. I order it direct and it's UPS'd to me.

I kept the peepers on my villains for around seven weeks after starting the Forco feedings, then took them off. It's been around six weeks now, and no one has resumed feather picking.

As someone stated on my original post about this, if this works, it could be a huge break-through for feather picking problem chickens everywhere.

 

[azygous]

Forget the pine tar. It's awful, gunky greasy messy stuff. And it rubs off, leaving greasy feathers, and it doesn't really work that well, anyway.

Get some Blu-kote and paint it on the bleeding wounds. It will help the healing while disguising the wounds.

 

[Mavrik]

Use peepers for instant results.

 

[bug58]

Thank you for the tip on the forco, haven't heard of that before.

My hens have started pecking at the littlest hen, when I'm outside she comes and hides by me and they still try and peck at her.

I've read a couple places online (the link below, being one of them) where they say vinegar in their drinking water stops this as well, and it's cheaper than most other options. I tried it before and it worked, and it looks like I'll be doing this again.

http://pet.tips.net/T003999_Stop_Chickens_from_Pecking_Each_Other.html

 

[7L Farm]

I had feather picking forever over a year. I got rid of the roo that taught them this nasty habit. Then I took the ones that were almost featherless & isolated them & started feeding everyone more protein. One scoop laying pellets & one scoop GBS this will speed up the process of growing back feathers. It usually took over a month for them to grow their feathers back. The procedure will throw the pecking order for a loop. This is a good thing. I would take the one being isolated everyday & put her in the chickens run so the others could see her while they free ranged. It took forever but it worked. They still pick feathers here & there but they look a 100% better. I'm gonna try the feed mentioned above as well. Good Luck it was a lot of work but I really liked the flock & didn't want to cull them.