feather plucking & eating

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Walfre

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feather plucking & eating
« on: February 13, 2013, 09:58 »
We started off with 5 girls, as soon as we put them in their new home the bullying started. it was so bad that 1 hen died. We rehomed the one we felt was the worst bully, she went to a lady with acres for her hens.
The remaining 3 were still at it though. We had 3 very bloodied & featherless girls. They would really shriek when feathers were pulled. We did everything suggested on this site & numerous others, less treats, more treats, additives, spray, the list of things we tried seems endless. We even built a second tier in part of their run even though we knew they had ample space already.
We had looked at beak bits but just thought they were wrong somehow. In deperation went to the vet. At first he thought they might have mites but on examination found then completely free from bugs or nasties of any sort. His advice, get 3 more hens! We had read this somewhere on the web so off we went & bought 3 more. We now had 6 hens getting feathers pulled & screaming.
Finally we secumbed & bought the beak bits (white plastic type). We just put these on our 3 remaing original girls. The change was immediate. No more feather pulling or feather eating, just 6 very happy girls. No more shreiking just the odd bit of natural pecking order aggro. We are getting 4-6 eggs per day & the girls all look good & healthy.
We look at our 3 new girls & they are so much calmer than the first 5 hens ever were, so think we bought hens that were already stressed for some reason the first time. If this hadn't worked we would have given up on hen keeping. Please no nasty comments about us using bits, if you haven't had a problem this bad you have no idea what it is like watching your hens destroy each other & feeling so helpless about changing the situation.

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grinling

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Re: feather plucking & eating
« Reply #1 on: February 13, 2013, 10:45 »
I have seen posts which recomend the beak clips.
Glad it is working.

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JaK

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Re: feather plucking & eating
« Reply #2 on: February 13, 2013, 18:17 »
I also have a hen like this (ex battery hen) and she has to wear a beak bit all the time now. Hers fell out yesterday and she went on the rampage and tore three of my girls combs, blood everywhere! It was the last straw for me and she is now living on her own again.
I feel that with some hens this kind of thing is learnt behavior that is very difficult to correct. The beak bits do work a treat though.
I hope your hens break their bad habits soon.  :)

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MrTwang

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Re: feather plucking & eating
« Reply #3 on: March 14, 2013, 07:29 »
I had to put beak clips onto 2 of my girls due to bleeding around the base of the back from feather pulling.
It worked a treat and left them on for 2 weeks till I saw an infection in the nose area where it had buried itself deep.

That one has started again big time.... thinking of clipping the beak now as I really can't think what else will cure it.

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sneezer

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Re: feather plucking & eating
« Reply #4 on: March 14, 2013, 16:41 »
I am going through what you have been I have one girl who almost killed the other luckily I came home in time, she never showed any aggression before this and now she is a nightmare, I ordered the beak bits but couldn't bring myself to put them on her, but I am tired of having two seperate runs and keeping them apart, so thank you for the post it has definately made my mind up, the bit is going on!!
I'm glad yours seem to be getting on better :D
« Last Edit: March 14, 2013, 16:45 by sneezer »

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MrTwang

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Re: feather plucking & eating
« Reply #5 on: March 14, 2013, 21:21 »
The beak bits although look inhumane are a god send.

Only problem with them is they can't forrage easily and lose out to the battle of who eats the corn first.

I'm going to try them again as I like the girls to free range. I really don't want to have to do anything more permanent...



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