What to do if chickens peck. Why do chickens peck each other until they bleed? Causes of Cannibalism in Chickens

Sometimes, especially in winter or when the bird is molting, poultry farmers may notice that chickens peck at each other, pluck the feathers on the body of some individuals, peck them until they bleed, or even peck them to death. This behavior is not considered normal and is caused by various stressful reasons. Consider the factors why chickens begin to peck each other, how to wean them from this, and how you can help the affected birds.

There may be several reasons for this behavior of chickens kept in the household. Many of them occur due to violation of the rules of maintenance, improper care and errors in the preparation of the diet. A bird that feels uncomfortable, stressed, nervous and thus tries to relieve it.

Cannibalism in chickens can occur for the following reasons:

1. Inadequate and unbalanced feeding. Chickens, like other birds kept in the household, need food that will contain all the nutrients they need. They especially need protein and calcium, the need for which increases during the period of molting or oviposition. If for some reason the chickens do not receive them in the required volume, they begin to compensate for the deficit in the way available to them. First, they peck out feathers from weaker relatives, and when blood appears at the site of the wounds, they begin to peck them further. If the victims do not resist, they can be pecked to death.
2. Excess protein feed can also cause pecking. If the protein content in the feed is increased, then this can lead to acidosis, irritation of the mucous membranes and the formation of cracks on them, which will eventually lead to pterophagy.
3. Chickens can learn cannibalism if they are given meat and sausage leftovers. So to speak, having felt the taste of meat, they then begin to attack their relatives.
4. Lack of salt or water, which birds try to make up for in this way.
5. Crowding can also lead to hens plucking each other's feathers. If the house is cramped for the number of chickens that live in it, then they also experience stress from this, begin to fight and peck at each other. This is especially pronounced in winter, when chickens do not go for a walk, move little, sit in the dark and often cold, which greatly depresses them.
6. Too bright lighting. If there is a lot of light or the illumination is long, the slightest damage on each other's body becomes noticeable to the birds, and they begin to peck at them.
7. Other errors in keeping: low humidity, excessively low or, conversely, high air temperature, insufficient number of feeders or drinkers, because of which the chickens begin to fight with each other for food or water.
8. Joint keeping of chickens various breeds, with a different color of plumage or different ages. In this case, light-colored chickens react inadequately to dark-colored chickens. It may be the other way around.

In addition, the reasons that chickens peck each other to the point of blood may not be related to illiterate content, it may be the temperament of the bird itself. If an individual is aggressive and pugnacious in nature and pecks at its relatives just like that, for no reason, then most likely it will do this all the time. Similar tendencies can be seen already in young animals, when broilers or small chickens begin to peck each other to the point of blood. Growing up, such individuals do not part with a bad habit. Therefore, all that remains to be done in this case is to separate such a bird from the rest of the population and grow it separately.

Also, the cause of cannibalism is often the addition of new individuals to the house. Poultry farmers have long noticed that old chickens peck at young ones that are planted next to them. In this way they try to establish hierarchical relations, which is quite understandable by natural instincts. Things can even go so far that new birds will be pecked to death. It may also happen that laying hens during the laying period become the object of attack. In this case, other chickens begin to peck at the area near the tail if it is damaged.

Signs of the beginning of pecking and plucking of feathers

Cannibalism in chickens may look like this:

• birds peck out feathers from each other on all parts of the body, bloody marks appear at the site of damage and on the beaks of chickens;
• affected individuals lose activity, lose weight, laying hens stop laying;
• old chickens, when new ones are planted in the house, begin their attacks from the head, damaging the earrings and comb;
• with a lack of nutrients, birds peck out feathers from others; in addition to plucking, they can also pick up a fallen feather from the floor of the house (therefore, its absence should alert);
• if the birds do not have enough protein, then they turn their attention to the skin and toes of other individuals;
• hens peck at the cesspools of laying hens, especially if the oviduct is damaged, which can happen when trying to lay an egg that is too large, and roosters usually do not participate in this.

If chickens start plucking each other's feathers, they won't stop doing it themselves. Often, having chosen one or several individuals, they continue to terrorize them until they peck at all.

Identification and elimination of causes

To determine why chickens peck each other's feathers, you need to watch them for a while. When the reason for pecking becomes clear, you must immediately begin to eliminate the factors that led to such disastrous consequences.

Nutrition

If the cause of the attacks is found in malnutrition, then the diet must be adjusted so that those substances that are deficient appear in the chicken feed. For example, calcium can be found in crushed eggshell and shell rock, protein - in meat and bone and fish meal, in grain and greens of legumes, vitamins - in green grass, tops of garden plants, vegetables and fruits, yeast. You also need to add a little salt and chalk to the feed.

Sulfur, which is needed to form a feather, is in white cabbage (you can also give chickens a special preparation Methionine, which is added to feed 1 time per day for 2 weeks at the rate of 3-4 tablets per 1 kg of food). Laying hens during the laying period should be added to the usual feed manganese sulfate 10-15 g per head, Methionine 15-20 g or 2-3 g feather meal.

Lighting

From spring to autumn, while it is warm, it is advisable to keep chickens on the range almost all day and drive them into the barn only at night. Lighting in the poultry house should be optimal. The length of daylight hours, even in winter, should not be less than 12-14 hours. To do this, it is enough to put 1 60-watt light bulb in the house for every 10 m 2 of its area. Illumination intensity - 10-15 lux. Instead of ordinary light bulbs in the chicken coop, it is advisable to hang red ones. Their light is not as bright as that of ordinary ones, and besides, it distracts the attention of aggressive individuals.

Congested content

The minimum area required by chickens for normal living is 1 sq. m. for 4-5 individuals egg breeds and 3-4 meat. More heads can not be placed so that the chickens do not feel uncomfortable. It is also worth making sure that all birds have free access to food and water during feeding, that is, you need to put enough feeders and drinkers in the house so that the chickens do not crush each other, trying to get to the feed. In the poultry house and on the run, you can hang sprigs of green fodder or put fresh vegetables. Chickens will willingly peck them, not relatives.

Laying hens need to put a sufficient number of nests so that they can safely rush into them and do not interfere with each other. In summer, birds should be released more often into aviaries for walking. You can also do this in winter when the weather is nice.

Microclimate in the chicken coop

It is important that the house is warm and dry, but not too dry. Low humidity is also thought to cause chickens to peck at each other. Due to the dryness of the air, the feather becomes brittle, irritation of the mucous membranes of the eyes and respiratory tract is observed. When the room is too damp, the chickens crowd together, the plumage becomes faded and dirty.

Dealing with other possible causes

You can prevent pecking in chickens if you settle representatives of different breeds separately, and also try to keep a light-colored bird separate from a dark one. When adding new individuals to the house, you need to watch for some time how they will be accepted by old chickens.

If they begin to attack the young, then it is necessary for a while to put the old ones in cages or a separate room until the new chickens take root in the flock. Or, as an option, let a young cockerel into the chicken house for a while so that he teaches the bully chickens a lesson. If all else fails, then aggressive chickens will have to be slaughtered. If the birds begin to pursue any one individual, then it will now have to be removed.

How to help an injured chicken

First of all, the pecked bird (chicken, young or adult chicken) must be planted separately. Then find the places of damage and lubricate them with an antiseptic, ointments, for example, synthomycin, penicillin or ichthyol. A mixture of equal parts of glycerin and iodine is also suitable, washing with a solution of manganese. Wounds need to be treated until they heal. After that, you can return the chicken to the house.

Since meat and eggs are obtained from them. Birds are unpretentious in content, but possess interesting feature, which causes a lot of trouble: they peck at their relatives. Especially this most often occurs in winter or during molting. What are the reasons for this phenomenon, why chickens fight, read the article.

Reasons for pecking birds

The behavior of chickens becomes aggressive for the following reasons:

Why do chickens peck chickens? One reason could be the overcrowding. Most often, this manifests itself in winter, since most of the day the chickens have to be in a dark room, where there is no soft bedding and the possibility of walking on the street. Birds need free space and comfort, and their absence causes aggression, which causes conflict between chickens. They cannot sit down at the negotiating table, so they solve problems by fighting.

illumination

In the room where chickens are kept, daylight hours in the winter season are long, since any chicken coop is illuminated. Birds begin to get nervous, which provokes them to certain actions in relation to their relatives. Why do chickens peck chickens? In bright light, the birds clearly see the vessels through which blood moves, especially in the cloaca. They deliberately begin to peck at this place. That's why chickens peck each other until they bleed.

Air humidity

The climate in the chicken coop must be controlled. It often happens that chickens peck each other. What to do in this case? The fact is that the reason for the aggressive behavior that prompted the birds to fight is the abnormal humidity in the room for them. Obviously, the air is too dry, which increases the fragility of the feather cover. The hen secretes a secret with which it processes its feathers. To do this, she presses on the corresponding gland with her beak, while damaging the skin cover. The appearance of a wound provokes its relatives to peck. To exclude this reason for the aggressive behavior of chickens, excessive dryness must be prevented, the air must have an optimal humidity of 60-70%, as in any residential area.

Breed incompatibility

Usually the farm contains chickens of the same breed. But there are times when other birds are planted in the chicken coop to increase their numbers. Breed incompatibility often causes chicken fights. Birds of different colors are especially vulnerable: they will certainly attack each other. For this reason, birds of the same breed are placed in one chicken coop. If there are no conditions for this, you should monitor the behavior of chickens and avoid aggression towards relatives.

Containment change

This reason for the pecking of chickens is only a consequence of the fact that the conditions under which the birds should be kept are violated. Perhaps the air temperature in the bird room was too low, or, conversely, too high. The cause of aggression may be a lack of drinkers, feeders, which leads to mortal battles. There are times when the aggression of birds reaches such a level when, in addition to feathers, they peck even meat from fallen relatives. In this case, cannibalism is not a disease, but just a behavioral response to the fact that the conditions of detention have been changed, as a result of which the birds have become stressed.

The reason may be the stress that birds are subject to when changing environments. If they are transplanted to another chicken coop, they become nervous and aggressive, especially at first. When they get used to the new environment, the behavior normalizes. In order for acclimatization to go faster, you need to transfer the birds to another room along with the feeders and drinkers that were in the old chicken coop.

Pterophagy

Pecking in veterinary medicine is called pterophagy. Small chickens are especially prone to this phenomenon. When they grow up, the bad habit remains. Living in a group of relatives, they will constantly get into a fight. It is better to immediately isolate the chick. Dead birds must be removed, otherwise the herd instinct will work: chickens will start eating them, and, worst of all, this behavior will develop into a habit.

Placement of young chickens

It turns out that birds exist by their own rules. New neighbors must be placed in the chicken house correctly, otherwise there will be a fight. Of great importance is the age hierarchy, especially when planting young hens with older ones. It is worth one of the most inveterate individuals to pounce on the young, as all the inhabitants of the chicken coop get involved in the fight.

Laying hen during egg laying

Why do chickens peck chickens? The cause of pecking, which is of a massive nature, may be the laying hen during the entire period of laying eggs. The fact is that at the beginning of oviposition, the laying hen must reach a certain body weight. If its weight is less, egg production is stimulated artificially. But the intervention has a negative consequence: the oviduct begins to fall out, which is the reason for its pecking.

Skin damage

Pecking is primarily subjected to individuals that have damage to the skin, resulting in injuries and the absence of feathers. A wounded bird must be urgently removed from the chicken coop, otherwise it will be pecked by other individuals, which usually attack the eyes, cloaca, neck, feathers, and stomach. A sick bird dramatically loses weight and strength for defense; it cannot hatch eggs. This is all at best, and at worst - she will be pecked to death by all the chicken coop, except for roosters: they do not touch chickens. But the chickens, having gathered in flocks, attack them and peck them to a deplorable state, sometimes to death.

Prevention

What if the chickens are constantly fighting, pecking at each other? If this is a small household, you can constantly monitor the behavior of the chickens and avoid fights. But this is impossible to do on large poultry farms, since such activities will require a lot of costs and labor. Therefore, preventive measures are taken. They are aimed at ensuring that the maintenance of birds, their care and nutrition are correct. This is the only way to avoid pecking.

• The diet should be balanced, contain a normalized composition of useful substances. quick change combined feed won't do any good. This must be done gradually. To increase the protein content, soy products, dry milk should be added to the feed. A good result is given by supplements from fish or meat and bone meal, complexes of vitamins and minerals: bromine, manganese, sulfur, copper, arginine and others. It is important that these substances are always present in chicken feed. It should be borne in mind that both a lack of protein and its excess provoke chickens to peck.

Rational nutrition is the key to health, high egg production and stable behavior of chickens. What to feed poultry? She should receive the following products:

• Ground and whole grains, especially for dinner, so that the feeling of satiety lasts until the morning. You need to use different cereals so that the health of the bird and its egg production are normal.
• Vegetables and greens, which contain a lot of minerals, vitamins, antioxidants. Such food promotes good digestion and rapid satiety. Greens should be harvested in summer in large quantities. For the convenience of its storage on the farm, you need to have a granulator, with which the grass is pressed into granules, the nutritional value remains the same as that of fresh grass.
• Vitamin and mineral supplements, bone and fish meal, meat scraps. Yeast, milk processing products, live food, which is worms and small insects, are of great benefit.

It is better to feed the birds at certain hours, but with small intervals. Breakfast - at five or six o'clock, lunch - during the walking period, dinner - before dark. In winter, the frequency of feeding is increased.

In order for the birds to be comfortable during the cold period, it is important to consider the following points:

• Ensure the house is at the right temperature. It depends on the system by which the chicken coop is heated, and on its insulation.
• Adjust lighting to keep laying hens egg-laying.
• Make a balanced nutrition plan.

The natural heating of the chicken coop is achieved by insulating it. But first you need to disinfect. The chicken coop must be thoroughly cleaned and treated with lime mortar at the rate of two kilograms of lime per bucket of water. Then dry and ventilate the room.

To make the floor warm helps bedding made of natural raw materials in one or more layers, depending on the weather conditions of the region. You can use straw, hay, moss, peat, sawdust or wood shavings, which are covered with a layer of 20 cm. If necessary deep litter, twice a month they make a bedding with the same raw material of five to ten centimeters. So that the litter does not cake on it, they throw grain on the floor. Chickens in search of him will rake everything that is on the litter.

If you plan to keep chickens at home in winter, you should well insulate the walls with basalt wool, slab insulation or other material suitable for these works. It is important to take care of the ceiling. It also needs to be insulated, otherwise part of the heat will go out through it. If possible, it is better to build a special room for chickens with an attic, where a supply of bedding and feed will be stored. The superstructure above the roof will protect the house from severe cold and wind. To insulate the ceiling, plates, earth, moss, straw, sawdust are used.

When raising birds, farmers may face problems such as cannibalism or pecking. Why do chickens often pluck each other's feathers so violently, and how to deal with it? Let's try to deal with this problem in more detail in the article.

Quite often in winter, as well as during molting, the presence of bald patches in chickens is noted. However, the absence of feathers can be observed in summer and at any other time of the year. It is especially dangerous if bleeding wounds are observed. If you notice such signs in your birds, then you should immediately find out their cause. Perhaps there is such a thing as cannibalism in chickens.

The problem with feather plucking is that hens, when they see blood on another bird, begin to peck it to death. This manifestation is especially characteristic of individuals living in captivity. In this case, not only feathers suffer, but also areas in the head, back, and sometimes in the tail area are affected. It should be noted that such behavior among birds leads to the development of various skin diseases. And the wounds become a free way for the penetration of dangerous viruses and infections into the body.

When birds peck at each other and pluck feathers at the same time, it is worth considering the reasons why such situations most often occur:

• Initially, this behavior can provoke a lack of calcium and protein in the body of birds. However, this period may not be long. Most often, this happens during molting or active egg production. After the balance of protein, minerals and vitamins is restored, however, the bad habit remains;
• often plucking is the result of a lack of sulfur in the body;
• the desire to pluck feathers from a bird may appear due to the close keeping of chickens and their boring pastime. As a rule, this happens if walking in winter and summer is limited;
• the content of different, incompatible breeds in one chicken coop. In the vast majority of cases, this behavior is observed in birds of a light color, if they are placed with representatives of a darker color.

In order for chickens not to have a desire to pluck feathers from their fellows, first of all, you should take care of the diet of the wards. To do this, veterinarians recommend making more nutritious food by adding shell rock, small fish and ash to it. You can also give cleansing in raw or boiled form with meat and bone meal. To eliminate sulfur deficiency, the diet of birds should be supplemented with cabbage leaves or purchase a special preparation that can be added to feed for two weeks.

To distract the chicken from bad habit pluck feathers; in winter, it is necessary to release birds into the yard or corral for a walk for a while. Also in the chicken coop itself, you can organize an exercise for birds. For example, put grain in the bedding, put sunflowers, pumpkins or wreaths of dry nettles so that the hens can peck them. This way they will be busy and will not have time to pluck each other's feathers.

Pecking (cannibalism) in birds is a pathological behavior that is accompanied by aggression, eating feathers, skin damage, which often leads to death of the individual. This disease occurs regardless of age in any herd. This problem can lead to injury, bleeding and death of birds. Also, the consumption of feed increases, and the productivity of the herd decreases.

There are several types of cannibalism:

1. Chickens pluck each other's feathers.
2. They eat the meat of their neighbors.
3. They crack the eggs.

To date, the exact causes of cannibalism have not been established. However, non-compliance with the conditions of detention is considered the most likely, especially when breeding young individuals. The lack of free space leads to the fact that chickens begin to peck at each other, in particular at the sight of blood. As a rule, stronger individuals peck at weaker ones, or old residents of the chicken coop - new ones. We offer you to watch a video about why cannibalism is common among poultry from the author Elena M.

Among the occurrence of this pathology among chickens should include the following factors:

1. genetic predisposition. This is possible when, when breeding new breeds, the main emphasis was on high level egg productivity, therefore leading to the perpetuation of some signs of cannibalism.
2. Nutrition. Too frequent change of food leads to a deficiency of certain nutrients in the body. This factor can provoke pecking.
3. Heterogeneity of the general herd. A large difference in weight can cause some individuals to peck at others - weaker ones.
4. The presence of pests and other diseases. In this state, chickens are more prone to cannibalism than healthy chickens.
5. Light fluctuation is a pecking stimulant.
6. Early oviposition.

We bring to your attention the most common and effective methods solution to the problem of cannibalism among chickens.

Lack of vitamins, trace elements and other nutrients in the diet is the most common cause of cannibalism. That is why it is very important to make food more varied and monitor the nutrition of your birds. First of all, you need to take care of a sufficient amount of protein in the feed. It is also helpful to add fiber to the diet in the form of rice, wheat or oat bran.

Feeding flocks with crushed grain can prevent aggressive bird behavior.

If chickens peck at each other, then it is necessary to change the illumination of the chicken coop. To stop cannibalism and prevent it, blue or muted white lighting should be used. This may help the bird to calm down.

Many breeders add abrasive components to the feed, with the help of which the beak is grinded. Gradually, it becomes more blunt, which will make it impossible to peck at each other. This can also be done mechanically through the use of special equipment.

When chickens peck and peck at each other, this can be prevented by increasing the free range of birds. That is why every chicken coop needs to be made with a walking area so that the birds can spread their wings, run and look for food in the ground. Thus, they will be distracted from the habit of injuring their relatives.

In any poultry house there are several groups of chickens. The first includes young individuals that are still quite weak. And the second group is the old, somewhat stronger than the young. Sometimes this neighborhood provokes a problem when old birds show their advantage over young ones and peck them.

This situation is also observed in birds of the same age category. However, this is most often seen as a result of the placement of young or new individuals that were purchased from other farmers. It is quite possible to avoid such troubles. To do this, it is important to know which old birds peck at new ones, and strong birds peck at weak ones. The aggressors need to be removed or even new birds should be kept separately for the first time.

However, the main reason for such situations is the lack of space. Laying hens should be positioned at the rate of no more than five adult hens per 1 m2 of area. You should also take care of comfortable feeders. One chicken should have about 9 cm of feeder length. To eliminate conflicts between birds in the chicken coop, you should fix the required number of perches. Moreover, their number should be sufficient to accommodate all the chickens for the night.

This video (zenin channel) shows cannibal chickens eating a pecked relative.

Pecking in chickens, or cannibalism, is a pathology of behavior characterized by aggression towards fellow chickens, eating feathers, eating cloaca and skin.

Pecking is most common in adults, especially during oviposition. Dominant birds beat the weaker ones on the paws, exposing the coccyx and neck. When blood appears, such chickens become uncontrollable, trying to get to the internal organs of their brethren. Young animals are subject to cannibalism much less often - pecking sometimes occurs in chickens under the age of 60 days, when a feather replaces the embryonic down.

Pecking speaks of problems in the bird flock and can lead to numerous wounds and bleeding, as well as to the death of the livestock. Since the pecking that has begun is not so easy to eradicate, it is necessary to carry out constant prevention and carefully monitor the bird in order to prevent its occurrence.

The reasons for pecking are very diverse:

Pecking can be observed both with normal and with cell content chickens. But when kept in cages, damage is minimized, since aggressive birds are not able to harm their relatives.

It is also noted that the breed characteristics of chickens influence the appearance of pecking. Cannibalism is more common in birds belonging to the egg and egg and meat breeds than for broilers.

Can pecking be prevented?

To prevent pecking, it is necessary to carefully monitor the bird and, if necessary, separate especially aggressive individuals from the rest of the population. Chickens that continue to be aggressive and cannibalistic are killed.

If chickens of different breeds and ages are on the farm, they must be kept separately. New birds are released into the herd only in the evening.

The best way prevent pecking - proper feeding and maintenance of chickens. When you can not keep more than 10 adult chickens or 20-30 chickens per 1 square. m of space.

Chickens should not fight over feeders and drinkers. There should be no more than 50 adults per feeder with a diameter of about 50 cm, and no more than 10 individuals per nipple.

For the prevention of pecking, change helps a lot. It is recommended to use red or infrared lamps, and when pecking has already begun, you can completely get rid of lighting, turning on the light only for the time of feeding.

Often the cause of pecking is a lack of calcium in the body, so cottage cheese, crumbled chalk, charcoal and shells should be present in the diet of chickens.

Pecking treatment

If pecking does begin, there are the following recommendations for its successful treatment:

• Feed additives such as meat and bone meal(up to 10% of the total food volume), manganese sulfate (at the rate of 10 mg per adult bird), methionine (at the rate of 10 g per 10 kg of feed), salt(about 1% of the total volume of food).
• The feed should be saturated with fiber - ground straw, oat husks.
• The lack of minerals and make up for products such as cabbage, boiled potatoes, silage, fresh herbs, cake.
• During active oviposition, 2 g of feather meal per day per adult should be added to chicken feed.
• At the first signs of pecking, 1 g of mineral sulfur and 2 mg of potassium per bird are added to the feed for ten days. You can also give chickens citric acid (40 g).
• The wounds of the affected bird are treated with a solution of potassium permanganate or brilliant green. You can use tar-based preparations (for example, wood tar). In the treatment of pecking, the drug ASD-2 has proven itself well, with which the pecked places are lubricated. This drug not only has a therapeutic effect, but also scare away other individuals.

If cannibalism among chickens continues, there is a radical remedy - debecking. The procedure is carried out exclusively on young animals. This is beak trimming, carried out with the help of special knives that cauterize the circumcision site.

This operation must be carried out by a specialist necessary equipment and practical experience, otherwise you can cut the beak incorrectly. As a result, the chicken will not be able to consume water and food.

With proper feeding, observing the light regime and a fairly spacious chicken coop, the problem of pecking will disappear.

Breeding chickens for meat and egg products is always a profitable business. With an excess of production, it is easy to sell it on the market, which contributes to the excellent filling of the family budget. Growing birds, the poultry farmer has to face problems that should be solved as quickly as possible so as not to incur losses. So many farmers ask the question: why do chickens pluck each other's feathers and eat them? The reasons for this behavior and ways to solve the problem are described in the article.

Chickens pluck each other's feathers: what to do?

Veterinarians and experienced breeders are well aware of the strange behavior of chickens when they pluck other people's feathers and eat them. In scientific circles, it is called pterophagy. At the first manifestations of the strange behavior of birds, it may even look funny. However, later, when the chickens bleed, and the phenomenon becomes widespread, the farmer is not in the mood for jokes, because the chickens often even die. What to do if manifestations of pterophagy are observed among birds of a farm?

Pterophagia can manifest itself for the following reasons, namely:

1. Wrong compilation.
2. Feeding chickens a monotonous diet in winter.
3. Lack of minerals in young animals during the period of intensive plumage growth.
4. Protein starvation of laying hens of egg breeds.
5. Too much bright light in the coop.

Feather plucking by chickens is seasonal. Most often, chickens eat feathers in winter. According to biologists, this is due to a lack of minerals in their diet. It is important to diversify the birds' diet as soon as possible, to start giving mineral and vitamin complementary foods.

Pterophagy - plucking of feathers by chickens from each other

Teenage hens during the molting period need a large amount of minerals. Significant loss of trace elements accumulated by the body is spent on the growth of feathers. If the bird cannot replenish the balance, it instinctively begins to look for a mineral source. When breeding chickens indoors, in cages, the only such source is brothers in misfortune. Breeders know cases when a chicken weakened by persecution can be pecked to death, plucking feather after feather from her. Quite often, in advanced cases of vitamin and mineral starvation, cannibalism can be observed in birds.

Laying hens often lay 2 eggs a day during the high season. This negatively affects the mineral reserves of the female. During this period, chickens are in desperate need of feeding a balanced diet with the inclusion of such natural additives in its composition:

• crushed river shells;
• crushed slaked lime;
• wood ash, preferably fruit species.

When plucking feathers by chickens, veterinarians advise adding pharmaceutical fish oil to the feed. The proportion is calculated simply: 100 grams of fat per bucket of feed. In order for all individuals to receive the necessary substances, the feed should be thoroughly mixed. You can add fish oil to the composition of feed when preparing it yourself. If the poultry farmer decided to saturate the body of birds with minerals due to slaked lime, then before that it should be weathered in the open air for six months.

Why do chickens pluck each other's feathers and eat them about

Breeders know cases when a chicken weakened by persecution can be pecked to death by plucking feather after feather from her.

In winter, it is recommended to diversify the diet of birds by including a variety of grated root vegetables, especially white cabbage, in the diet of birds. It is rich in sulfur. Vegetables can be served even with tops, which contain a lot of vitamins and minerals. Feather plucking and eating stops if chickens are fed with fish or meat waste.

Veterinarians recommend that in case of mineral-vitamin starvation, the drug "Methionine" be included in the diet of birds. The dosage is 4 tablets per 1 kg of dry food. The recommended treatment period for methionine is 14 days. In the future, it is worth adjusting the diet, giving high-quality and varied food.

Quite often, chickens pluck other people's feathers and eat them with an excess of artificial light. From bright lighting, the nervous system of birds becomes excited. It stimulates. However, at the same time, it can cause inappropriate behavior of the bird. In this case, it is enough to reduce the brightness of the lamps and gradually the nervous system will recover.

There are quite a few reasons for plucking feathers by chickens, and even cannibalism. Farmers are advised to analyze the situation in the chicken coop, the diet of the bird, taking into account the season and the brightness of the lighting. If difficulties arise, consultation with an experienced poultry farmer or veterinarian will help.

Video about why chickens pluck each other's feathers and eat them:

Why do chickens pluck each other's feathers and eat them? The answer to this question is contained in this article, video. Unfortunately, there may be several reasons. Therefore, it is important to determine it at an early stage in order to understand how to help the bird. Following the above recommendations, you will certainly be able to keep all the birds healthy.