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Ok so my new chickens have gone beyond plucking, my little columbine 'cloud' is bleeding! I've used Stockholm tar and purple spray and put her back in to roost. all of them have been sprayed with a tea tree dilution and the trouble makers have been squirted several times today.

 

I think I've done all I can, just hold on tight for the morning. I've left the cube door open so she can escape if she needs to into the extended run. She's really timid and i know will be the bottom of the pecking order.

 

Thanks claret for all your advice earlier.

 

I've got everything crossed for the morning :(

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Good Luck! I have just had the same problem and it really isn't very nice :cry: . One of my poor chickens had a gaping bleeding hole at the bottom of her tail yesterday but I too used the Stockholm Tar and Violet Spray and it does seem to have calmed the culprit down for now. I have put mine all in together tonight and hope they are all still friends (and alive!) in the morning! :pray:

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Our anti pecking device arrived today, so this evening, when I came home from work, OH and I fitted the bumper bit onto Alice. She sneezed a bit, then forgot about it. It will be interesting to see how she behaves tomorrow. Of course, she can still chase the others. However, I'm hoping that the other girls will soon realize that she can no longer do harm to them. Hopefully, in a week's time, she will be rid of her nasty habits.

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Sorry guys for not replying sooner. We've not had a good few days. Thanks for all your advice and support, but unfortunately Cloud - our new columbine died on wednesday.

 

I never knew that chickens could be so brutal. I am still having to separate the two groups as they cannot be left togther without fighting. I'm really worried, and wish i had never got our new chickens.

 

I am sure it will sort its self out but it really is distressing.

 

Cloud I am so sorry we let you down!

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I feel so sorry for you. I only saved the life of one of my hens by giving away the aggressor, and life has been so much easier since.

 

Everyone needs to distinguish between mild feather-plucking (unattractive but relatively harmless) and cloacal cannibalism (lethal). As soon as there is blood in the vent area, take action immediately. Bumper bits stop the problem for some months, but the beak eventually grows around the bit.

 

My Gingernut suddenly started eating my Pepperpot who had arrived with her a year earlier, so it doesn't just happen when you introduce new to old. But once it has started, it never stops.

 

If you do a Google search for "cloacal cannibalism", the other name for vent-pecking, you will find a lot of interesting articles: see this one for example. There is some evidence that hens kept in more light are prone to it, and also hens bred to produce large numbers of eggs.

 

None of my pure breeds has ever plucked so much as a feather -- do other people find that only the hybrid hens are the guilty parties?

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Thanks guys, the 2 groups are separated but together at night. but the new ones killed a new one. Not at the vent, but the back of the head.

 

Sorry but I cant talk about this anymore it is just too distressing, and my kids keep asking where cloud is. I come from a farming family, but this just is too much.

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Really sorry to hear you lost one of your new girls, LJ. :(

 

I know from experience that introducing new hens can be a traumatic experience. It does take a few weeks for full integration, but my older girls are now a happy threesome.

 

I have to go through it all again in a couple of weeks when I start introducing my Silkies to the hybrids. *fingers crossed*

 

If you can keep the worst offenders separate to the more settled ones, but so they can still see them, I think it does help the integration process.

 

Good luck! *hugs*

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