14 Chickens, Pecking Each Others Feathers Out

[Asriix]

With Chickens, the problems seem never end. Here's my latest one:

My chickens are pecking each others feathers out. All of them. There's only 1 or 2 hens who have no feathers pulled at all.
They pull them from their necks, their heads, their tail feathers, their elbows, their backs. If they had feathers on their feet, they'd pull them out.
Some hens are pretty badly pecked on their backs, elbows and necks.

I have Rhode Island Reds and Sapphire Gems. All of them are pecked. But the 2 hens that aren't pecked much, if at all are a RIR and a SG.
My chickens are a little over 1 year old and are all the same age.

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Important Info:

My chickens cannot free range.

• I live in a national park with predators. Hawks, coyotes, snakes, opossums, etc.
• I live on a private street without gates or fences in any yards. My neighbors have dogs that frequently come in to my yard.

My chickens have 2 runs.

• Both chicken runs connect with a "chicken tunnel" made from hardware cloth.
• Each chicken run is 169 sq ft, for a total of 338 sq ft.
• This is way beyond the recommended 8 to 10 square feet per chicken, which would be 104 to 130 sq ft for the flock.
• My chicken runs are filled with sand and have 2 feeders and 2 waterers.

My chickens graze about once a week

• They have a chicken tractor, which I'm able to let them into.
• I let them free range when I mow my lawn, which takes all day.

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Things I have tried:

Separating the most pecked hen

• This resulted in her getting pecked even worse when reintroduced.
• She looks awful but I'm afraid to separate her again, for the same result.

Separating the hen(s) I thought was the bully

• This didn't change anything. I think all of the hens are bullying each other.

Spraying Blue Kote on the exposed skin/wings

• Literally did nothing.

Putting Rooster booster on the exposed skin/wings

• Literally did nothing. Actually made them peck each other more. They were eating it.

Giving them a flock block to keep them busy

• Worked only a little. They got tired of the block rather quickly and left seeds all over the run, though they did eat it.
• It's too hot for a flock block right now.

Moving one feeder into the second chicken run

• My chickens do not like to share when they eat. I moved the feeders farther apart to make them harder to guard, but with 13 chickens there's always someone guarding the food.

Giving them treats, fresh veggies and dried crickets

• About 2-3 times per week they get treats in their run. Watermelon, Cantaloupe, Cabbage, Boiled Eggs etc.
• It keeps them entertained for about an hour. That's it.

Putting vinegar in their water

• I read that putting vinegar in their water reduces pecking for some people. It didn't for me.
• Now it's too hot for vinegar in the water, which could dehydrate them.

Putting Pine Tar on Them

• This is literally my last resort. I was worried they'd die if they ingested it, but I figured it looks like they're on the way to killing each other anyway I may as well try it.
• It seems to be working, but only lasts 2-3 days. I go to re-apply on every affected chicken every 2-3 days.
• My chickens look really ugly and dirty from dust sticking to the tar, but the pecking has been reduced.
• My worry is, I don't see it being a long term solution. I'm not sure it will change their behavior that much.

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Things I want to try but not sure if they will work:

This is where I need the input of the smarter and more experienced than me chicken folks like yourself.
Will any of these things work?

Adding another, 3rd feeder to one of the chicken runs.

• My theory is another feeder may reduce bullying that could be happening over the food. (I have very little proof of this)
• I'm not sure though, but I noticed most of the noise from the hens happens in the morning when they're coming out the coop to eat.

Adding more toys to the chicken runs.

• My chickens don't like toys. It's hard to find toys that they won't just walk and poop all over. They like hanging toys but they're hard for me to find.
• My second run is pretty bare, just sand and dirt and feeders. Its where I dump all of their treats. I can't figure out what to put in there to entertain them on that side. Suggestions?

Changing their feed to a higher protein one.

• I bought a different brand of chicken feed I'll be giving them today that is higher in protein content and comes with calcium in the feed.
• I'm hoping that of they aren't getting enough from their current feed, the change might also help their behavior.

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That's it. That's all I've got.

I've tried to be pretty methodical about how I'm dealing with all of this, but it's a lot of fails.
If anyone has any other suggestions that I haven't already listed above, I would be wayyy appreciative.

Also, thanks for reading this far. I know it's a lot!

 

[sourland]

The pens that are not pecked at all are probably the worst offenders. I would put Pin Less Peepers on at least these two.

 

[RubelliteRose]

As far as toys, don't bother with a xylophone- mine completely ignored their Christmas present. Mine don't care about mirrors, bells or any of the other non edible toys I have tried either.
Do try turning an apple, cucumber or a head of cabbage into a tetherball though. That is a toy that mine love and it takes them a bit longer to finish vs laying it on the ground.

 

[rosemarythyme]

Adding another, 3rd feeder to one of the chicken runs.

• My theory is another feeder may reduce bullying that could be happening over the food. (I have very little proof of this)
• I'm not sure though, but I noticed most of the noise from the hens happens in the morning when they're coming out the coop to eat.

Adding more toys to the chicken runs.

• My chickens don't like toys. It's hard to find toys that they won't just walk and poop all over. They like hanging toys but they're hard for me to find.
• My second run is pretty bare, just sand and dirt and feeders. Its where I dump all of their treats. I can't figure out what to put in there to entertain them on that side. Suggestions?

Changing their feed to a higher protein one.

• I bought a different brand of chicken feed I'll be giving them today that is higher in protein content and comes with calcium in the feed.
• I'm hoping that of they aren't getting enough from their current feed, the change might also help their behavior.

First off, thanks for organizing what you've tried and what you haven't, made it easier to read.

I would do more than 3 feeders, since you have guarding issues. For my flock of 10, in the morning, I have up to 5 bowls of fermented feed (pink Xs below) plus 1 dry feeder inside the coop. They're all spread out and the chickens rotate from feeder to feeder without issue. By midday the bowls are empty and they're fine sharing the dry feeder.

They don't need "toys." By your own description, you do lack clutter though. Look at my diagram above and you'll see there's a lot in their environment for them to interact with. It keeps them busy without diluting down the protein in feed as treats/snacks would, and also visually breaks up the space so lower ranked birds can hide if needed. Any clutter used needs to be placed in such a way (or modified) to have more than one "exit" so birds can't get cornered, which is why everything is away from the walls.

More clutter ideas: https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/a-cluttered-run.1323792/

Pinless peepers, which sourland suggested, may also be necessary in this case as pecking problems have progressed this far that it's a flockwide issue.

 

[Cazook]

What % protein feed are you giving them? Increasing this can help.

Pinless peepers can help.

More space and enrichment of the run can help.

Unfortunately feather picking is a learned behaviour and one it starts and spreads through the flock, they can continue to pick at each other even if you fix these things.

 

[aart]

Upping protein might be good....but this is now a habit and new feed will not likely help.
How big is your coop?

@rosemarythyme has made some excellent suggestions.

 

[Asriix]

The pens that are not pecked at all are probably the worst offenders. I would put Pin Less Peepers on at least these two.

I knew I forgot something!

I did try pinless peepers once, when they were a little younger.

I could barely get them on, and then they ran around literally screaming, kicking and flapping and eventually ripped them off their noses. There was blood.

It kind of messed me up.
I’ll think about trying it again, since they’re a little older.

 

[Asriix]

As far as toys, don't bother with a xylophone- mine completely ignored their Christmas present. Mine don't care about mirrors, bells or any of the other non edible toys I have tried either.
Do try turning an apple, cucumber or a head of cabbage into a tetherball though. That is a toy that mine love and it takes them a bit longer to finish vs laying it on the ground.

Same thing happened to me. The xylophone was a total fail, I was really excited about it though! The mirrors were fun, but really only 1 chicken liked it and it got dirty so often, so fast and was pretty small so I just pulled it out.

I like the tether ball idea. I’ll try it. Maybe the treats will last longer than an hour.

 

[Asriix]

First off, thanks for organizing what you've tried and what you haven't, made it easier to read.

I would do more than 3 feeders, since you have guarding issues.

Okay, I’ll try 4 and see if I need to add more from there.

They don't need "toys." By your own description, you do lack clutter though. Look at my diagram above and you'll see there's a lot in their environment for them to interact with. It keeps them busy without diluting down the protein in feed as treats/snacks would, and also visually breaks up the space so lower ranked birds can hide if needed. Any clutter used needs to be placed in such a way (or modified) to have more than one "exit" so birds can't get cornered, which is why everything is away from the walls.

More clutter ideas: https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/a-cluttered-run.1323792/

Aha! Great suggestion. In all my searching I couldn’t find anything like what you’ve described. In fact, in my other run I think I do have things against the walls.

I’m going to try this and see what I can stick in there to help. The link really helped as well. Thank you!

My chickens went through a whole winter stuck together, without a single feather picked but as soon as it started to get warm they started going nuts. I thought it was so strange!

I’m still sitting on pinless peepers my mind, only because I’ve had bad experiences with them with this flock in the past. I’m not totally sure yet, because I don’t want them ripping them off again.

I think it traumatized me more than it did the kicking and screaming chickens.

 

[Asriix]

Update & Progress Log #1:

Although the pine tar was working, it was really tedious. If I missed a day they'd go right back to pecking each other! It was ridiculous. So I finally got fed up and put the pinless peepers on them.

Some broke before I could get them on, which sucked because I couldn't do the whole flock. I bought more to put on when they come Wednesday.

Took 2 people and a full 30 minutes of panic attacks and bursts of anger/sadness because of what happened the last time. But I'm sooo happy to say that I figured out how to get them on!

With no pain, no freakouts and no blood. They just scratched at them. A couple of my more neurotic birds, like Elaine (this is why she has her name, she reminded us of Elaine from Seinfeld, complains about literally everything) squawked a bit more than the others but even she kept hers on!

This morning, I woke up to a LOT more complaining from the bunch than usual, but they seem fine. I guess they're just complaining. Hopefully it quiets down a lot more once the whole flock is done.

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I also added some clutter to the chicken run. Not a lot, but the chickens are already all over everything so I know it's a good thing! They're jumping on top of it, walking under it, walking around it. They all perched on top of them like it was some kind of fancy chicken perch. lol

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I haven't added new feeders yet. Having difficulty finding the right kind of feeder for my open air run #2 but I'll get there.

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I'm going to keep updating this for myself and in case someone ever finds this post in a Google search. It might help.