05/06/2026
Alright. Hold onto your knickers while I rant for a moment 🤣
Feather pecking.
No it isn’t normal, it isn’t ok, it is preventable and it’s absolutely just lazy ownership to allow it or uneducated, which I guess isn’t so bad coz when you know better you should do better.
So what is it!? It’s when one or more of your flock peck at another chicken, removing feathers, ultimately to get the blood from the other animal. They’re savages, but they do it for a reason.
Usually over crowding in young birds. Or a lack of nutrition/protein in older birds.
So let’s say you see it beginning on one of your birds. I’d use cetrigen (purple spray), or even betadine to cover the naked area. Then you need to figure out why. Is it one hen being an ar****le? Does she need to move into a different group? Is she lacking? It there not enough space? Are they stressed?
Do they have food all the time? Are you missing something?- this is where you observe and act.
I’m well aware that not everyone is as… let’s say invested as I am in my birds but it’s an easy, usually human caused problem that’s I’m definitely not onboard with normalising in the poultry world.
Anyway. Sorry I’m not sorry.
I don’t have a photo example because I don’t have feather pecked birds but here’s a photo of Nanna to represent how I feel about the subject 🤣🫣
