Constant Feather Picker-Bearded Only Though, Advice?

[SchwartzLakeFarmNC]

Good morning fellow chicken enthusiast, I have a Blue Egger Pullet who is almost 1 year old now, she has 5 other sisters 4 EE's and Biel. We have a 6x6 coop with a 8x12 run, that opens up to a 15x65 free range area full of jungle gyms, perches and things any chicken would love to scratch in.

We feed all flock 20% protein with oyster shell on the side along with crush egg shells. 1 time a week we also give as a treat, yogurt, calf manna and either Tuna or another meat protein.

This bird began by pulling all the beard feathers from one of our EE's so we put "glasses" on her and kept them on her for about 6 weeks, the EE's beard started to grow back during this time, we also sprayed everyone with Anti-Pick just in case others got the wrong idea. There were no other issues with the feather pulling of beards, we did have 1 other EE pick some bum feathers so she has "glasses" now. We took the "glasses" off the Blue Egger on Friday evening and by Sunday, she had pulled all the feathers off another EE's beard, she is completely naked on the neck now.....

I believe this Blue Egger is trying to go broody as well, which has nothing to do with her feather picking issue, but other than leaving the "glasses" on full time, using anti-pick products or rehoming her, has anyone had success in correcting this trait she has now started? We've watch her in the past just pluck a feather off the beard while the EE's just stand there an take it, never moving out her way. She is probably the top girl, no roosters, and everyone else gets along fine, no bullying or fights of any sort. We plan to use Vicks Vapor on the girls without beards just as a pre-caution as I read on here that using the vapor rub helped others on this site.

Any advice or ideas that worked for you would be appreciated.

 

[MomvdH]

No answers, but following to see what folks share. We have one buff who has had her neck feathers pecked. No blood, but not able to grow back yet. No mites. No other hens affected. Not sure sure who the pecker is, but I have my suspicions.

 

[LaFleche]

This behaviour often starts as overpreening the remnants of wet feed/mash from the bearded flock mates.

In case you want her to hatch some chicks you could separate her from the flock and she might forget about her feather eating habit during the upcoming weeks.

If not, you could stop feeding mash/soft feed or you could rehome her to a beard/muffless flock.

Pinless peepers might work as well, but they should be removed when she is having chicks as she needs to see well to care for them.

 

[SchwartzLakeFarmNC]

Thanks for the advice, we do not plan on letting her go broody, no rooster so no chicks! She clucks around like she wants to go broody, but we have a cage set up to break her if she intends to try and follow through.

We plan on keeping the pinless peepers on her moving forward in hopes that once we raise a few more baby pullets another girl will take over the flock, but last option would be to rehome, would break our hearts cause she is so sweet and lays well, but we got EE's for their beards, love them, and it's sad to see her pluck every single one in less than 2 days.

 

[Ridgerunner]

The closest I've come was a hot summer afternoon when a hen and rooster were perching next to each other. She started clearing a spot on his neck, picking out feathers. No parasites or anything else I could see. He sat there, probably thinking a loyal follower was preening him. I tossed him in jail for the rest of the afternoon, I did not know if she had already laid so he went to jail. I never saw evidence of that again. I have no idea why she did that.

You can try isolating the offender away from the flock for three or four days. Sometimes that will knock them down in the pecking order so their status and behaviors change. Sometimes.

I often suggest to solve for peace of the flock as opposed to thinking only of one chicken. I don't think this is a "peace" issue, not even sure how much of a safety issue it is if she only goes after beards though I'm nervous about a hen plucking feathers off of others. I think this will boil down to how much you like the beards versus like having her in your flock as long as it does not escalate.

 

[SchwartzLakeFarmNC]

You are exactly right, I've dispatched ones who caused bigger issues within the flock, this time around it's only the beard plucking, she doesn't go for blood or does not hurt any of the other girls.

We will try pinless peepers again, and once our new flock is out of the grow out pin, I'll toss her in for a few days by herself without the peepers and introduce again. If she continues her love of beard feathers after prison, I'll rehome this one. Chicken drama!