[bubs]

i have got 8 amberlees and 4 warrens and over the last 3 months a couple of the amberlees are plucking at the warrens and although the birds are fit and well it does look very unsightly . it all started when one of the warrens got hammered by the other chickens i thought she would die because she was just lying face down and very bloodied but a little bit of care and she was back on her toes the following day , but since that episode at least 2 chickens persist in plucking and eating the feathers .
i was wondering if any other people have had this problem with their chooks and did they stop them from doing so.

[Roughlee Handled]

If they are eating the feathers I have read that they can have a deficiency.  What do you feed them on?  Do they have access to oyster shell?  Have you thought about poultry Bit Rings?
http://www.poultry.allotment-garden.org/Chicken_a/aggression_poultry/index.php
"Bit Rings

There are plastic bit rings available. The ends of these can be clipped into the nostrils of the beak so that the rest of the ring is in the hen’s mouth. In this way, the beak cannot be completely closed, although eating and drinking are still possible.

Again, I dislike anything that affects normal behaviour, although I can see the value of using a bit ring temporarily until the aggressive pecking habit has been broken. I would be against using it as a permanent measure.

I should add, however, that I have never used bit rings, but I was interested to hear from someone who has. He fitted them to some of his Lakenvelders and Welsummers and found that the birds soon got used to them.

At first, all was well and he was delighted with the re-growth of feathers on the attacked birds, but after eight days a canny chicken worked out how to get round it and reverted to her bad ways. "She discovered that a beak bit is no problem when presented with an eighth of an inch thick emerging feather shaft. I now realise that if a bird is unable to use the tip of its beak because it is fitted with a bit to prevent total closure, it simply uses a deeper bite and uses the ring itself as a substitute upper beak.”

[bubs]

they have always got grit available and get a very varied diet but still they pluck and the ones being plucked quite happily sit there without any fight.

[Roughlee Handled]

There have been a couple of threads on here about feather plucking and one of them I recall mentioned giving them cat food. Then the feather pecking stopped. 

I always have oyster shell out for my girls.  It is a source of calcium.

[Debz]

I have one girl with a bare bottom and one with a bare patch.  I have tried purple spray and cat food and nothing seems to be working.  The girls seem happy enough and are still laying, they're just not very pretty.