Cannibal vampire hens!

[Poddington Pea]

As the title suggests, I have cannibal vampire hens. On Wednesday I noticed one hen had blood dripping from her stumpy tail quills. I have had the 10 hens nearly 3 weeks and they are still recovering their feathers. I've noticed them have the odd llittle peck at each other but have never seen blood before. I watched them and there didn't seem to be any out of the ordinary pecking going on.
Today however, I have just spotted 2 others with bloody quills. I watched them for 15 mins and whittnessed 1 hen go around pecking the blood and 'lick' her beak each time as she was enjoying the taste
I vowed to remove her and was thinking of how to separate her off when I saw another do the same! Right, I thought, I'll separate the 3 being bullied, how will I do that?
Whilst I was pondering dividing the coop, run and enclosure one of the bleeding hens went and pecked one of the others!!!!! And so it went on, there appears to be no pattern in their behaviour except the pure joy they seem to be gettinng drinking eachother's blood.

WHAT ON EARTH AM I GOING TO DO????!!!!!!

[motherhen]

Sorry Poddington I cannot remember the history of your birds are they ex batts? What are you feeding? I would get some gentian violet to cover the blood colour, this will help. Once they get the habit this can be extremely difficult to stop but it's normally caused by some reason in the first place. Stress, diet, mixing ages and types.

[Poddington Pea]

I tried to get some, it's being ordered in for me. I understand now what you meant about covering the colour! I hadn't realised they were such blood thirsty beasts!
History; they are ex commericial free-rangers and were really straggly when I got them and missing lots of feathers. The tails on a few of them were only a couple of feathers sticking out of their bald bottoms! These fell out (I think!) as they were rather battered anyway. And now we have all this blood drinking malarky!
I've been watching them from the house for an hour (on and off) and haven't seen half as much pecking, if any, as when I was down there. They've become very friendly, perhaps they're vieing for mine and my son's attention?

[Poddington Pea]

P.s. Do I need to clean off the blood before I put the stuff on?

[Poddington Pea]

P.s. Do I need to clean off the blood before I put the stuff on?

[RichmondHens]

No just spray it on all over the bloody bits.

How much space do they have? Birds normally feather peck because they are overcrowded. They may well have been overcrowded before and developed the habit then, before you got them. Commercial free range birds still do not have a great deal of space - the legal requirement is 1 sq m per bird - so it may be a hard habit to break.

PS: Can you keep a cock where you live? Introducing a cock to the flock may well sort them out.

[Poddington Pea]

Hi Richmondhens,

Thanks for the response, they have approx 600 sq ft to roam in and a coop measuring 24sq ft (don't think in metres, sorry!) I also let them out in the rest of the garden whenever we're out there (a few hours each day).
Unfortunately we can't have a cock (unless you can get silent ones?!)

[motherhen]

Hi Poddington, with commercial layers you have to be really careful that they get the correct diet, they will have been fed layers mash or pellets ad lib, this gives them all the protein level that they need. Stear clear of too many scraps this will only deminish the protein and they can start to peck because they are deficient, as feathers can be a source of protein. Although I agree with RH it can be a habit that they have gained along the way, if they have just started it then the diet could help, it might be worth giving them some ex-batt crumb from Allen and Page, this has been specifically developed to assist ex - batts with rehome stress and feather regrowth.

[petal]

Its a shame you can't have a cockerel. I personally think the law needs to change on this - people like revving cars, playing loud music at unearthly hours and letting their vile small dogs yap incessantly - I would much prefer to hear a cock crowing!!

[Flummery]

I've heard it said (no personal experience) that feather peckers that are doing it because they lack protein can be helped with scrambled egg or cat food (just to be pleasant about it I'd steer clear of chicken flavour!) I hope you get it sorted, it sounds ghastly.

[poohpouri]

I've heard it said (no personal experience) that feather peckers that are doing it because they lack protein can be helped with scrambled egg or cat food (just to be pleasant about it I'd steer clear of chicken flavour!) I hope you get it sorted, it sounds ghastly.

as above we gave ours cat food as lacking protein and brought some peck a blocks to hang around the run to sop boredom

[Poddington Pea]

Thanks all!
Petal; I'm not sure about whether it's legal for me to keep a cockeral here, I don't feel I could keep one as it would distrupt my neighbours (1 of which has THREE yappy dogs that bark every time they hear anyone near the house or back gate!!!!) But more importantly, a cock would probably wake and annoy me!!

What sort of cat food do you give them? Dry or wet? I'd feel a little funny giving them egg! Wouldn't lentils or some other pulse provide enough protein?
They're on layers pellets which is what they'd been fed before.

Before I let them out this morning I spread lots of corn about rather than giving to them once they were out. They were much less pecky and the blood has stopped. Here's hoping they calm down!

[Suechooks]

I think they give the cat biscuits. I have read that its not a good idea but plenty of people seem to do it and I'd guess occasionally it wouldnt harm. Not too much if you use fish based as your eggs might taste fishy.

[RichmondHens]

For a protein boost I would go for hard boiled eggs with the shell left on and chopped/mashed up. The chickens don't recognise them as eggs like this so there is no risk of them eating freshly laid eggs.

[Flummery]

People tend to feel a bit squeamish about giving chickens eggs - don't know why. They are not eating other chickens, just the food designed for them as unhatched chicks.

If they need protein I'd cut the corn down too. They will fill up on this and pellets have a better balance.