4m x 3m Omlet pen, cube, new auto door still boxed and coop light

[PennyTikkaNoodles]

We are at our wits end worrying about our poor little Pepperpot, Noodle.

 

For the last 8 months she has been losing feathers, which we initially thought was part of her first moult (She will be 2 years old in November). However, she is now totally bald in several areas.

 

I read on the forum that the girls sometimes pluck out a few feathers if they are hot, but this seems to be lots and lots of them! She seems to have plucked out or lost feathers in patches all across her body - On her neck, her breast, and patches under her wings.

 

However, she seems happy enough, doesn't have a dirty bottom, there appears no signs of anything crawling on her nor in the Eglu, and Penny and Tikka (our Gingernut Rangers) don't seem to be affected. Furthermore, we don't see the girls fighting and anyway Noodle is the Queen Bee!

 

We are very worried, but Noodle keeps producing eggs, so there can't be anything too drasticly wrong - Can there?

 

We have given Noodle a couple of baths in salt water, as occasionally her skin on the bald patches (especially on her breastbone) looks very red and sore. I've taken a couple of pictures, which I'll post if I can work out how to do it.

 

Has anyone else experienced this or could anyone in the collective give us any advise on what is wrong and what we should do?

 

Thanks

 

PTN

[PennyTikkaNoodles]

Here she is:

 

http://club.omlet.co.uk/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=213265

[Porkypie]

Hello,

 

I don't have experience of this but I'm sure someone will come along soon who does. Maybe fitting a bumper bit may stop her plucking her feathers out as a short term solution?

[PennyTikkaNoodles]

Thanks for the suggestion. Have been reading about Bumper Bits and am not sure whether this is the solution (or a solution I would particularly want to take). I have never seen any of my girls arguing with eachother, except on day 1 when Noodle showed she was head girl. I have never seen them fight since. I haven't actually seen Noodle pull her own feathers out or scratch herself. This is whats so strange.

 

You might be able to see in the background of the photo we have the Eglu set up on patio slabs. On top of the slabs we have bark chippings. Noodle sometimes creates a dust bath in the bark chippings. We also notice that when she sleeps she sleeps on the bars in the back of the nesting box, while Tikka and Penny snuggle up together on the nest. Could there be a problem there?

 

I clean off the bars every week with eco washing up liquid and water. There is always a poo mountain at the back of the box where Noodle sleeps. I also change the bark chippings every 4-6 weeks. I use chippings purchased from Homebase. There is nothing wrong with that is there?

 

W/r/t food, we give them Small Holder Range Natural Free Range Pellets plus organic mixed corn as a treat. Other treats include raisins and porridge (made with water). I also check and change their water every day. Again, I can't see that I am doing anything wrong because the other two chickens are thriving and not balding.

 

We let the girls out virtually everyday to free range for at 15-30 mins. We try to keep them on the lawn or wandering around the patio after they devastated our raised flower borders and kicked bark chippings and stones onto the lawn last summer and this spring. I dont think there is anything poisonous that she is getting on herself.

 

I'm at a loss...

 

Help!

[Raina]

Hi,

 

could the other girls be plucking her feathers?

[Katy]

Are you sure one of the other girls isn't plucking her?

 

My Pepper Pot, Blackie looks exactly like Noodle and we couldn't work out what was going on until we caught our Gingernut Ranger having a sneaky pluck. Blackie had been loosing her feathers for weeks though before we actually caught Ginger in the act.

[PennyTikkaNoodles]

Haven't seen the other girls plucking her, but that doesn't mean its not happening. Noodle though is head chick, so I would have thought she would have stopped them. The other girls show no signs of being in a fight though and I would have thought that Noodle would have stood her ground.

 

How did you stop Ginger plucking Blackie?

 

Edit: Boss lady says that the Gingernuts are so timid that there is no way that she thinks they could be plucking Noodle. Noodle as head chick would not stand for it either. She is most definately the boss in a quietly confident way (rather than an aggressive one) and the others are subservient. The pecking order was set on day one with a 10 second spat between Penny and Noodle. They are both bigger than Tikka, who took her place at number 3.

[CluckyBucks]

Could it be that she is sleeping on a flat surface and that is rubbing her feathers away kindof??

 

I dont know

 

She sounds fine though

 

Oh and that photo of her is adorable, bless her

 

xx xx

[Alma]

Hi,

 

I have a Bluebelle who looks very similar to your Noodle.

 

I too have been worrying for some time now. My other girl is a Gingernut Ranger.

 

Yesterday I think I solved the mystery. I caught the Gingernut pulling feathers from her bottom on two occasions. She must have been doing it for some time, without me noticing.

 

On top of that, I then noticed the Bluebelle herself, pulling feathers from her own neck.

 

I have fitted bumper bits to them both today and hopefully that will solve the problem.

 

Hope you sort it soon

 

Alma

[xScrunchee]

Feather pulling does not have to be done in a bullying or aggressive way.

It was my top hen who suffered the worst because of two feather pluckers.

 

She didn't seem to mind at all and would just carry on dustbathing or whatever while they pulled her feathers out and ate them

 

So, I (speaking from experience) would definitely not rule out feather pulling

[Dolly]

I can second xScrunchie's findings. Our head girl was the one being plucked and seemed to 'allow' it to happen! I too thought she'd have none of it and turn on the offender but she didn't. Fitting a bumper bit to the one doing the plucking was the only thing we found that stopped it.

[PennyTikkaNoodles]

I'm probably in denial here but I just can't believe that they are plucking her, or that she is plucking herself.

 

I went in to see the girls as they had settled down to sleep tonight. Penny was sat in the nest, Noodle was in the back left hand corner of the Eglu with her head on Penny's back. Tikka was sat on top of Penny's right hand side and ontop of Noodle's head! I had a quick chat with the girls and a jolly stern word with them as I told them not to peck eachother nor peck out any of Noodle's feathers. I'm hoping that this will work and that I wont have to go down the Bumper Bit route.

 

If we were to apply Bumper Bits, how should we go about it? Do we do all 3 chickens, or just one at a time until we start to see Noodle's feathers grow back and therefore conclude which of the girls is to blame? Furthermore, how long do we keep the Bumper Bits in for?

 

Also, if we just did nothing, what will happen? Will Noodle start to get fed up with whoever is doing it and fight fack? If she is doing it to herself will she finally stop? Or will it keep going on until she looks like she should be in a butcher's shop and starts to freeze as the winter nights draw close? I have told Mrs PTN to start knitting a jumper for her, but I'm not sure that she took me seriously!

 

So, why do they do this? Do they eat each others feathers when they are not getting the right vitamins from their food? I wonder whether we are doing something wrong there?

 

Finally, with a tear in my eye, I'll leave you with a mental picture of my girls. Every now and then we give them a bowl of porridge. They come running over to us when they see the blue Frosties bowl. They hurry to get their beaks into the bowl, but share space and let eachother have some food. Once they have pecked the bowl clean, my lasting memory is of Noodle and Penny looking at eachother. Penny very carefully and gently cleaned off the bits of porridge that had splashed all over Noodles face. Not once did she peck Noodle and Noodle didn't flinch. It was so funny to watch. (sob...sob)

 

PTN

[Katy]

How did you stop Ginger plucking Blackie?

 

We haven't entirely - Ginger now has a bumper bit, although she can still manage to pluck around it It does at least mean she does less damage though.

 

It isn't done in an agressive way - like someone else said, she'll pull feathers out when they are dust bathing together and Blackie doesn't flinch.

 

All four of my girls do the gentle removal of porridge from around each others faces - very sweet.