Feather Pecking Spray - does it work ?

[ChrisBNorth]

Hi All,
We have 4, 18 week old Copper Black Marrans which are in a hutch 2 feet off the ground, the hutch is about 3x3 and the run outside is about 9X3 on an ex flower border. My wife feeds them lots of greens and they are fed Layer pellets and Corn everyday.We have just discovered that one has a bald patch appearing where she looks like she has had her feathers pecked off , we have also noticed that only 1 hen actually has all her rear end feathers intact, the one which is doing the pecking I suspect ! - does anyone know what causes this hen to peck at the others and how to stop it as I'm told they will all start on the weakest if we let them until they kill her. My Wife thinks the run is too small, I have read about some anti feather pecking spray , does anyone know if this works?, any other comments gratefully received

[MaureenHall]

Short answer - yes, the anti-peck spray does work! The run though does sound a bit small if they're in there all the time. If you can give them the run of (part) the garden when you're there, then that stops the boredom which is often why the feather pecking goes on. They do need some added interest and I think there's a thread already about providing this

[RichmondHens]

Yes, the main reason birds peck each other is boredom. You rarely get pecking problems in free range flocks. Also feeding corn is not really advisable. It's very heating and can cause the birds to get agitated. As a treat (a small handful every now and again) is ok, but not as a regular feed. You can give them a bit more during the cold winter months as a treat late afternoon.

[Bramble-Poultry]

I agree with Richmond - Corn is not a nutritional complete feed and is used more as a treat.

Pecking is usually a bordem thing, but can be a sign of an underlying mite problem (self plucking), however I must say that in my experience and I'm sure others will disagree marans are little sods for it, my Marans peck hell out of the others. anti-peck sprays work great to break a habit but will become expensive if you do not address the underlying cause (bordem) as you will be using them for a very long time! In this case the underlying problems would appear to be bordem and a teriroy issue in as much as each bird does not have enough space to not feel threatened.

With regard to the run it is too small really if they are to stay within it the whole time and you will find that the mess it up very very quickly. I have seen small runs work very well however but usually when the hens are not in them!! It is used as somewhere to sleep and somewhere safe to shut them in whilst you are out but the rest of the time they are allowed to wander around freely, if you want to allow them to wonder but temporarily restrict them use garden canes and pea netting! Not saying you can't keep chickens penned a lot of people do - just need to adress the size a little bit if you plan to keep 4 large fowl permantley penned - if you can't change the size of your run change the size or number of your birds.

Relieving bordom - obviously allowing more room will help, but distractions work great too, buy a reduced cabbage or similar in the shop and hang it whole by a piece of string, the birds will peck this and not each other hopefully. I've seen old cds fixed to the side of runs or hung to attract the chickens, a crate or bale to climb on - there are lots of things people use to entertain chickens and like everything what works for one may well not work for another and just keep trying them until you find the right one for your birds.

Come on folks - chicken distraction techniques please!!

[bluemoon]

One of the main surprises for me when I first got my chickens was just how active they were. I was lucky and could organise them a very large run as they are on the allotment. Mine are Marans too and although they start to lay at 22 - 24 weeks they actually continue to grow for several weeks after that so yours probably still have a good deal of growing left to do too. If you want to see something truly scary you should come and visit our copper black marans cockerel; he is HUGE.