umm what to do about feather-plucking chickens?

[CayugaLover]

so my muscovie male used to shed a lot of feathers, and the chickens were eating the ones he shed. at first i tried to stop them, but eventually i just decided to let it go. I couldn't spend all day chasing down feather-eating chickens. next thing i know, the chickens are picking the feathers right off my muscovie and eating them! my muscovie died in an unfortunate accident with some stray dogs, so the problem is kindof stopped, but now they are starting to eat the feathers another one of my ducks is shedding, and i don't know how to stop the feather-eating! does anyone have ideas on how to stop this?

 

[Habibs Hens]

feather eating chicken is an indication of protein deficiency

feathers have protein in them and if the chicken are not getting enough they will eat the feathers and when none available to scavenge they will pluck and hurt others

check the protein in the feed an dup it

it should be 16-17% Raw Protein

 

[CayugaLover]

thanks! i figured they were eating feathers for a mineral defficiancy but i wasn't sure.

 

[Percheron chick]

Throw them a few handfulls of dry cat food or buy a small bag of game bird feed to up the protein.

 

[ChickenLover200]

i have a barred rock i assume she is on the bottom of the pecking order some of the gold links we have get on top of her and pull out her feathers they are all hens she is missing wing feathers and neck feathers to where you can see bald spots on her

 

[esther5]

i had a terrible problem and one of my hens had a bald back for months. i tried all kinds of vile tasting sprays to no avail. i tried isolating the bullies which also failed. then i found beak bits on ebay. mine came from ireland. i prefer the simpler white ones. they worked like magic. several bullies wore them till my girls feathers grew back. now i have no serious pecking in the flock and none of my birds are smeared with foul ointment....