The feather pulling continues

I thought we may have turned a corner with this but sadly it’s still happening. Last weekend we had a couple of sunny days for the first time in a while and I spent a lot of time in with the girls which seemed to stop the feather pulling. They know I don’t want them to do this as I tell them off when I catch them, so they don’t do it while I am in there, therefore this may be why it appeared much better last weekend. The problem is I can’t be in there all the time (much as I would like to be!) and I can’t use the water spray to deter them as I only see them doing it at a distance and they stop when I reach them.

I know it’s not lack of protein as I am giving them plenty, and they are not eating the feathers so I am picking them up from the run. They are happy and healthy as they have bright red combs and are all three laying an egg nearly every day.

I really believe that it was the stress of losing Treacle that was the trigger to this behaviour as they had all four been together since they were a month old. Treacle was top hen and a really good leader, she stopped Dotty bullying Bluebell and kept peace and harmony in the flock. Treacle was ill for three weeks then had to be put to sleep. There was never any feather pulling until we lost Treacle and I think the stress of their loss was the start of this behaviour which has now become a habit and a chickens habits are really hard to break.

My friend Jackie has recently written a post on her blog about this same subject. She has just been through a similar experience and from the comments on her post about this subject it seems that others have experienced this too. However this doesn’t help with how to cure the problem.

We tried a different anti-peck spray this week This one didn’t smell bad like the last one but was supposed to taste bad. The instructions said to spray them all which we did and when I went up to them a short while later they were still doing it.

My husband suggested putting vasaline on the feathers around Dotty’s neck to see if that would stop it. Poor Dotty was trying to preen it off herself and they are all still feather pulling so that too was a failure.

Dotty’s bare neck

Dotty’s bare patch on her head

Dotty’s bare head

I feel so sorry for Dotty as she is having her feathers pulled from her neck and now her head as well as her bottom. It’s such a shame as it is really spoiling her looks, my husband says she is beginning to look like a turkey! The photos don’t really show how bad she looks.

Assorted bottoms

Dotty on the right has a small bare patch on her bottom, Bluebell in the middle has a lovely fluffy, untouched bottom, Pepper on the left has big bare patch on her bottom.

I have followed advice from the “Down the Lane” chicken forum and put in loads of new things to keep the girl’s entertained but the trouble is it is after play time or feed time, when they sit together preening that they are pulling out each others feathers. It seems to have become part of their preening routine.

Another bit of advice I received was that their feeder should be at shoulder height for ease of access. This was something I had intended to address when I first had the girls but as they seem to like to flick their pellets out and eat them from the floor, I left them to it. The feeder is on the covered patio area which is clean and dry and I sweep up each evening so it’s not been a problem. However I am willing to take on board any advice so have been looking for something to stand the feeder on. At a garden centre today I found a shallow pot which upturned looked about the right height.

I took the pot in and as with anything new, the girls took fright and went on to the coop roof. They do this whenever anything new or scary looking goes in.

We will be safe from the scary pot if we sit up here

Feeder at the new raised height

Now it’s a matter of will they be afraid to approach the new scary looking feeder? They gave it a wide birth for a while.

Bluebell in a dust bath

Bluebell took herself off for a lovely dust bath while the other two girls watched her.

We like melon

Then the girls shared a slice of melon.

They have got the hang of it

Luckily after that they decided the new height feeder was okay after all.

I feel that I have done all I can to stop them feather pulling and just don’t know what else to do. I wonder how far they will go this, my husband wonders if we will end up with oven ready chickens. I find it so hard to see them doing this and feel so helpless about it.