Hen picking feathers from others,even from the rooster!!

I have chickens from 4 sources and all 16 plus the rooster live together in a predator-proof run with a roof net.

Today I was busy with the garden and only noticed in the evening that there were lots of feathers on the ground. Several hens and the roo were missing feathers.

I took my evening tea to the chicken run as always, and sat down to watch as they dug and scratched. And this one hen goes around picking feathers from other birds' backs! Just like that.

I took her away and put her into a transport cage. Gave her lots of calcium mixed with usual feed. Covered the cage from three sides.

After the terrorist was incarcerated, the remaining flock clearly calmed down. The athmosphere was calm, with most chickens still digging and scratching, others resting in their favourite spots.

What on earth shall I do? I am not going to let one terrorise others like that.

Is it possible the hen is bored because you're no longer able to free-range her?

How old is this hen? She didn’t show any signs of doing this before?

I know my flock is in the middle of a molt, could that be something that's going on?

Boredom is a problem for chickens. Is she a troublemaker? It could be that she's not adjusting well to all the changes that have been going on.
If you can, since pulling feathers is a problem, but not one that's life threatening, maybe give her a day to calm down alone and reintroduce her. If she's still acting out, she's definitely a candidate for evaluation of her fitness to remain in the flock.

Toys and Things To Do can stop problems before they get too set. Maybe a piece of fruit or vegetable hanging somewhere in the run would give her something to peck at and keep her occupied.
I try to move things around for my flock every so often so things are New and Improved.

Otherwise? After trying whatever things make sense to try, you have to consider the long term health of the majority of your flock. She may need a new home or sent to freezer camp. It depends on whether or not she's got some kind of problem, or if it's something easy to fix.

I presume a certain amount of plucking is natural to help preserve the flock from parasites, and to pluck foreign objects and such, since they can't each reach much of their own bodies to take care of themselves. Pecking while young is likely nature's way of culling the weak. Being confined, I would agree, may concentrate the action a little too much.

If only she could be trained to only pluck dead chickens. You could hire out her services, lol!

Jay Angler wrote:Is it possible the hen is bored because you're no longer able to free-range her?

No, she is one of the seven hybrids I bought to replace my hawk-eaten herd. She comes from an industrial operation, si even my modest 50 m2 for 15 hens is pretty OK

Juniper Zen wrote:How old is this hen? She didn’t show any signs of doing this before?

She is pretty young, 19 weeks. But so are all the other 6 henss who DO NOT pick feathers from their fellow's backs

Jordan Holland wrote:I
If only she could be trained to only pluck dead chickens. You could hire out her services, lol!

Jordan, want to join me in a start-up??

Kristine Keeney wrote:I
If you can maybe give her a day to calm down alone and reintroduce her. If she's still acting out, she's definitely a candidate for evaluation of her fitness to remain in the fix.

I incsrcerated her for a full day (24h). She was whining despite having basic necessities (food, water, roost). I let her back into the pen, and she was pretty timid.  Has not attacked anyone this far.

LESSON: always have a little jail for misbehaving chooks???

I don't know about others, but my take-away from your experience is: ALWAYS have a tiny jail for bad chickens.

I hope she behaves from now on.

That sort of feather picking is considered a sign of stress in most birds. It's also potentially self-destructive behavior caused by too much long term stress.
With chickens, it's usually caused by a lack of protein in the diet. She shouldn't be having the problem because of diet, but it might be a little PTSD from her time before you.

Who knows what shadows lurk in the hearts of chickens?

So glad the jail worked!

I have a batch 2 month old chicks and had major pecking problems among them, like nothing I've ever seen before. Initially it was two chicks (of 20) who were non-stop grabbing legs and pecking at toes, to the point of destroying some of the other chicks' nails and amputating toe segments. They were put in jail, and stayed there a couple of weeks because every time I tried to reintegrate them, they would immediately go back to the behavior. One of them ended up dying, while the other was finally able to be fully reintegrated. Shortly after that, one of the other chicks started pecking at the others' backs and butts, pulling out all the new feathers and breaking skin. She was put into jail, again for a couple of weeks, with the problem reoccurring every time I tried to put her back. By then it was time to move them from their little brooder with a heating plate to a larger pen near my adult chickens, where I couldn't keep as close an eye on them. I gave her one last chance, she was good for 2 days, then back to her old ways, so she finally got the chop.

I have no idea what was wrong with those specific chicks. At this point everyone is friendly and happy.

Along the way I tried giving enrichment and hiding places, to try to relieve stress and boredom.

My personal takeaway is that if a chick is causing this many problems, and a short stint in jail plus enrichment isn't solving the issue, it's not worth keeping her around. Although the one out of three was able to return to the chick flock, it was too much stress for both me and her victims in the meantime.

Juniper - I admire your perseverance in trying to cure misbehaving chics! I suspect a hen would not be as forgiving. Nd rightly so.



i sometimes wonder what traits stay hidden when we incubate eggs in a machine - depriving them of The Mother Hen's loving care?

As Jay suggested, I feel she is bored and some entertainment might help:

https://permies.com/t/163565/Entertaining-Chickens#1564327

Thanks to everyone, who chimed in with ideas.
i jailed the offender for one day [24 hours]. She was in a transport cage outside of the run, with no sight of the run. She got food and water in silence, no cooing. She heard the herd but could not see them. She whined. Was miserable. When returned, behaved impeccably well. Even now, a week later.
thanks a million for ideas and help ❤️

Update.
I had to remove the hybrids. (Hi-Line). They were too aggressive towards my landrace chickens. Killed some 7 week old cockerels. Were picking on everybody, even the rooster.
The 7 hybrids are now separated from the main herd. The athmosphere is very much improved. Nobody fighting. No feathers on the ground.
Can it really be that bad with hyvrids??

What a beautiful flock!
Without passing judgement on any particular breed or crossing of bird, some birds are more "high maintenance"  or highly strung. A lot of the birds that are primarily egg layers or stemming from the egg-laying body type tend to be more easily excitable. The heavier meat birds, or "dual-purpose with emphasis on meat" are generally calmer in temperament.

It's possible your hybrids were on the excitable end of the scale, which makes changes in flock dynamics more exciting for them. Any change seems to hit those birds harder, longer, or more dramatically.

I had some black hybrid chickens, pushed as being a dual purpose with emphasis on laying dark colored eggs well. I called them my Goth girls and they had black everything - grey legs, but black feathers and eyes. Very striking. They wouldn't stay home. Once they were released into the general population of the flock, they immediately went for a long walk up to the local feral dog pack. Well, I think it took about a month, all told for them to disappear, but they couldn't stay home. It wasn't in their nature.

I'm sorry things didn't work out with your landrace birds and the hybrids.

When we have a feather plucker, we cook them up a pound of liver per 10 birds and give them extra piles of oyster shells throughout the yard.  It's usually a deficiency in the diet as their needs change throughout the year.   This solves most of the issue in a day or two.  Maybe increase the protein percentage in the feed for long term prevention.

If you have access to electrovit then half strength in the water for a week helps too, but change it twice a day in the heat so it doesn't grow nasty stuff in the water.

If it's left too long it can become a personality issue, in that case the only cure we found is to keep them separate until the molt is over but that's hard on them psychologically which can increase other bad habits.