Pecking problem

We applied the ant-peck spray on Friday, five days ago. The instructions say to reapply after five days so we sprayed them again today. It says pecking should stop within a week. I was disappointed to find there were still dominique feathers in the chicken run yesterday and today and I am sure both Pepper and Dotty’s bottom are getting more bare and also Dotty’s neck. Bluebell seems unchanged and I haven’t seen any of her feathers.

Bluebell hasn’t lost any more feathers

Even her bare neck isn’t noticeable unless she stretches upwards. We didn’t spray her again as we felt it wasn’t necessary.

Bare bottomed Pepper

Pepper’s bare patch has got bigger and I feel sorry for her in these freezing temperatures. We sprayed her bottom again.

Missing feathers on Dotty’s bottom

Dotty has some missing feathers from her bottom and under her wing but not as bad as Pepper.

Bluebell’s fluffy bottom

Bluebell is lucky, she is the most feathered and didn’t need spraying.

Bare necked Dotty

Dotty has a bare neck and I feel really sorry for her because we had to spray both her bottom and her neck and I think having the unpleasant smell under her face can’t be very nice. I really hope this spray works soon as Pepper and Dotty are beginning to look really shabby.

I have been trying to make their space more interesting. We put this ladder in at the weekend but none of the girls have ventured on to it yet. I put some grapes above the ladder and on the top rungs to try to encourage them on to it (this is why Dotty is looking up). It didn’t work, they jumped up to ones they could reach and gave up on the rest.

My husband said to try picking one of them up and perching them on the ladder. I picked up Pepper and put her on the middle rung, she promptly jumped down and ran off.

Maybe they just need to find it in their own time.

We also put in two plants in pots four days ago. The girls are enjoying stripping them.

The outer branches are quickly getting stripped of their leaves

I am not sure that these are going to last long in here. I will move them back out to recover once they are half stripped as they may not recover from completely bare.

Roll on summer when I can grow more green things to give to the girls and they can scratch and dust bath in the garden area and sit in the sun. We all need some sun!