Poorly chicken

[Narf]

I was cleaning out my four hens earlier and I noticed that my Speckledy hen chased my Bluebell, plucked out feathers at the top of Bluebelle's leg and ate it. Bluebelle was 'curtsying' and clearly upset by it.

After cleaning out the girls, I caught and examined all four of them and my Light Sussex, Bluebelle and Warren out had signs of feathers being pulled out, but Bluebelle was worst, with two small bloodied patches. I cleaned it as best I could and covered the area with Sudacrem. As soon as I put Bluebelle down, Speckledy ran at her and tried to pluck out more feathers.

I bought all four hens as POL last July and they were brought up together. They have a 3 metre by 2 metre run with an Omlet Cube mk 2. They also have access to an outdoor space of  20 foot square area with hedges and grass. They are fed on Heygates Layers Pellets with alittle corn in the afternoon. They also have some kale, spinach when I have a surplus. I used to feed mealworms as a treat, but was told that I shouldn't, as they are produced in countries with salmonella.

The advice I have had so far is to rehome the 'bully' hen, but I really don't want to do that as she is a great hen otherwise and I love them all.

Any thoughts, advice gratefully received. 

[Cat tails]

I would start with fitting your Speckledy with a bumpa bit. This will prevent her plucking feathers and hopefully break the habit. 
Have a look at this video:

 

[Narf]

Thank you so much. Seeing how the Bumpa bit fits is very useful. I know that Bluebelle will be most grateful!

[Cat tails]

Thank @The Dogmother! It’s her fab video!

[Beantree]

Beak bits come in different sizes and are normally used during pheasant rearing. We have 25mm and 30mm, the aim being to avoid too much sticking out at the front which puts too much strain on the nasal passages, so a maximum of 5mm. The 25mm is generally the one to fit and I think that's the one Omlet stock. In my opinion the one fitted in the video is too big.

[Springvale]

I have had the same problem ☹️......and was advised that I was feeding too many treats ( I admit that I was 😳).  My girls were eating the treats and hardly eating their layers pellets. So we presumed that they were lacking in nutrients.  So all treats stopped and bumper bits fitted on the feather pecking culprits.  We found soaking the bumper bits in hot water for a few minutes to soften for easier fitting.  A couple of weeks or so gone by and feathers starting to show signs of growing 👍.  We took mildreds and debs bumper bits off yesterday, now got fingers crossed that they’ve learnt their lesson. 
 

lin