Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Poultry and Pets => The Hen House => Topic started by: evie2 on December 30, 2010, 16:07
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Do anti pecking rings come in different sizes?
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Yes I think so - small medium and large!
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lots of different sizes because you can gt them as small as quail, or as large as turkeys. I think the Domestic Fowl Trust sell them in small quantities. Solway Feeders do them but in larger amounts I think.
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That's good, I'll get some from the WFT, as a 'just in case', don't want a repeat of last time we got new hens :D
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What happened Evie??
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Nothing as yet, it's more of a forewarned exercise for when the Speckled Sussex arrive, don't want my Huddersfield brutes terrorising them :D
Also Ali has just arrived home from the farm with a box of Sablepoots, "because they're so cute mum and I didn't want to wait in case someone else got them :D", what can I say, he's so my son :lol:
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Oh, it's just that you said "Don't want a repeat of last time we got new hens"
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I'm getting the purple spray too, I really don't want any other chicken to suffer at the beaks of the Huddersfield brutes again.
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Pop the clips in hot water to soften them before you put them on. It makes the plastic a little more flexible.
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Don't confuse the normal pecking order pecking with habitual feather pecking/ eating. Feather pecking is a boredom habit. You shouldn't need to use the bits to prevent pecking order which is perfectly normal behaviour.
There's three types of pecking behaviour which have different causes.
1 Territorial disputes - happens when you introduce new birds to an established flock. The old birds will try to drive the new ones away and serious fighting and injury can occur. The old birds will often guard the feed and keep the new birds away so they can't feed (or drink). The cure for this is to introduce the new birds gradually so they are accepted as part of the flock and have several feeders and drinkers in the run to ensure the new birds can feed.
2 Pecking order disputes - happens when new birds are accepted into the flock they have to find their place in the order. There's no "cure" for this, it has to happen and is part of their natural behaviour. Use purple spray to treat any injuries but usually it's just a not too viscious occasional peck.
3 Feather Pecking/ eating - which is a boredom habit and can be triggered by over crowding, over feeding, too high energy food so the birds don't need to forage, lack of stimulation in their runs. Remember healthy birds are active birds and over feeding with scraps and treats reduces their activity. Lack of protein is sometimes cited )but is rarely a cause in my experience) and moult can also trigger this habit. Consider feeding higher protein ONLY if this behaviour starts in a period of moult as high energy feeding can reduce foraging and increase boredom. Note the over feeding advice above. Beak bits can be used to break an established feather pecking habit but probably won't help with pecking order pecking.
Here's a photo of a Vorwerk hen with an antipeck beak bit. They will eventually bite through them but by then the habit should be broken.
(http://i1128.photobucket.com/albums/m491/hillfooter/Vorwerkwithbeakbit.jpg)
HF
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It's a just in case thing because they were extremely brutal when we introduced 3 new hens before and poor Bunty never recovered and died.
As for the poots, well, they can look after themselves very well, Napoleon, the new little poot cockerel, made sure our 4 originals and 2 bantams knew exactly who was in charge, even though he only comes up to the bantams knees :lol: