Advice for Isolating Pullets

[lavenderforluck]

Hello! I'm looking for advice about keeping a 7-week old pullet isolated from the flock due to being picked on. If this belongs in another thread, please let me know.

A little background information. We have 11 pullets around the same age 7-8 weeks - a mix (Marans, Cochins, Faverolle, Austra White, Easter Egger etc.). They are housed in a 100 sq ft coop with a similar sized run. We keep several feeders and waterers available to them as well as chick grit, clover, herbs, and treats on occasion.

We bought the majority of the pullets who were raised together until about 4-5 weeks. Unfortunately the person raising them kept them in their brooder or a confined space a bit too long and some significant pecking behaviors arose. Specifically, with a Cochin and Salmon Faverolle. Bringing them home to the new - significantly larger coop and roaming space seemed to help, but yesterday I went out and noticed blood on the Salmon Faverolle on her tail - the chickens picked at several large feathers - she has bare spots on her back and bleeding where a large feather was broken off.

I immediately separated her and gently cleaned the blood off - there are no wounds on her body luckily. She is being housed in a large crate with clean water and food. I put a hen salve on the area where the feathers were pulled off to help it heal. My question is - how long should I keep her isolated? She obviously doesn't like being in the crate very much. Additionally, the hen salve made her tail feathers very oily and non fluffy - can we use a nontoxic (free of dye or scent) dish soap to gently clean those feathers? We want to get her back in the coop ASAP but want her to be safe and heal. I'm just wondering if from other's experience if this will be a few days or possibly a few weeks?

 

[Eggcessive]

Faverolles are very meek, and low pecking order usually. They are establishing their pecking order now. BluKote spray which dyes and disinfects the red bare area is very good to use to cover and hide the spots. It will wear off in a couple of weeks as her feather grow. That way you can place her back and watch for pecking. If it is just one pullet pecking, you can separate the bully for a day or two. Pecking can become a learned behavior, and can spread. Getting outside to free range can help to ease boredom. If all else fails, you can use pinless peepers on the bullies, where they cannot see right in front of their beaks to aim.

 

[Acre4Me]

All good ideas from @Eggcessive. Pinless peepers may be a good choice, not sure if the coin a size to fit young chicks, but check.

we have had SF from 2 different sources. They have all been very meek and do not defend themselves. We ended up recently selling the last two bc we decided they weren’t the best fit for our flock, too meek and getting waaaaay over-mated. However, they are sweet and very attractive birds that are great around people and kids, so we did like them, we just figured they may have a more peaceful existence elsewhere.

blu-kote should help with keeping others from picking at her.

 

[lavenderforluck]

Faverolles are very meek, and low pecking order usually. They are establishing their pecking order now. BluKote spray which dyes and disinfects the red bare area is very good to use to cover and hide the spots. It will wear off in a couple of weeks as her feather grow. That way you can place her back and watch for pecking. If it is just one pullet pecking, you can separate the bully for a day or two. Pecking can become a learned behavior, and can spread. Getting outside to free range can help to ease boredom. If all else fails, you can use pinless peepers on the bullies, where they cannot see right in front of their beaks to aim.

Thank you so much for this. I have a blue colored hen healer salve but it seems like the BluKote spray is a better option. Everything seemed fine except for an occasional peck when coming into contact with the more bossy ladies (i.e. Austra White) but because the latest incident broke a feather that left blood - the majority of other pullets began picking out of curiosity at her tail area. Can I use a small sized hen cover in addition to the BluKote spray? After the BluKote, do you recommend putting her back into the coop right away? She has only been in isolation for 16 hours at this point (we are interacting with her so she isn't alone).