Last year I had the idea of cutting a turf into twelve squares and planting them in seed trays. I would put one tray in the chicken run each day for the girls to have daily grass and by the time they were on the twelfth tray the first one had recovered.
That was fine while the girls were little and just pecked at the grass. Now they are fully grown and they scratch the grass to bits. The grass can no longer recover and it’s time to give up on this idea and throw out my trays of grass.
The pathetic looking trays of grass
There are still a few sparse blades of grass but not enough to keep the girls happy for long. I now give them greens each day instead. Spring cabbage only costs a pound a bag and lasts the girls a week. I am also growing some things for them in our veg plot. I have chard, spinach, pak choi, corn on the cob and nasturtiums for them. Sometimes you just have to give up on what seemed like a good idea at the time!
The other thing to update on is the feather pulling. I had hoped that having the new girls to think about would distract the big girls from the bad habit of pulling feathers from each other.
No such luck, every day I pick up feathers from the run, mostly dominique feathers. Dotty’s neck is becoming more and more bare, giving her a very strange look!
Dotty’s bare neck
I then noticed on occasion that Pepper would go up to one of the bantys and try to pull a feather from her neck. I always tell her off and water spray her if I am quick enough. I had a dread of the bantys getting plucked but I really thought that they would get out of the way.
My worst fears were realised yesterday when I went in mid morning and found a little pile of six banty feathers by the bush. I wasn’t sure if one of the bantys had been attacked but there was sign of anything amiss and I couldn’t tell where the feathers had come from. I have noticed that the bantys neck feathers are thinning though.
In the evening while doing my clean up chores, I left the chicken run for five minutes to fill my watering can ready to give the girls their daily clean water. When I returned there were another six banty feathers in the middle of the run. I have yet to catch the culprit but it seems a lot of feathers to pull out in such a short time.
I feel so saddened that the bantys may end up plucked as well. I inspected the little girls and Amber is getting a bare neck at the front. It seems that by becoming part of the flock they are also becoming part of the feather pulling ritual. I have tried everything possible in the past to stop this and nothing works but I had really hoped that the bantys wouldn’t allow this to happen to them. It seems as if this is a part of making friends and being accepted by the big girls. I feel so disappointed by this development just when I have achieved one integrated flock.
Click here to see the history of my flock.
There is something called Peepers, like little sunglasses that clip to the beak, they stop pluckers in their tracks.
I don’t know if that’s of any help. I had to re-home one of my girls for plucking,. She used to sit outside the nest boxes and do it whilst the other girls were immobilised, laying their eggs. I had to find her a new home, this was before I knew about ‘Peepers’
Hope this is of some help x
The problem with my girls is that they all do it (not the new little girls of course), It started when we lost Treacle, our head hen. I think it was a stress thing as it had never happened before. They do it in a friendly way while dust bathing together, it’s not malicious. Because they all do it to each other, separation isn’t an option and I have heard bad stories about the peepers and can’t bring myself to use them. At the end of the day it doesn’t bother them but it bothers me as they spoil each others looks. But their happiness comes before mine with this so I think we have reached a stalemate for now. I hope a first molt may change things but who knows!