My chickens won't stop plucking out each other's feathers! "the pecking order?"?

Question

my chickens rip one another's feathers out and they look horrible, and it's going to be getting cold soon and i don't want them to get sick b/c they're not covered by their feathers! how do i get them to stop? why are they doing this?

Answer 1

It could be some hens squabbling for dominance in the flock if this behavior is occurring between hens.  Roosters can get pretty rough on hens as well if they are trying to mate, as they will grab hold of feathers while mounting them.  This may also be because your birds are molting.  

If a bird in the flock is molting, they sometimes act differently than normal.  I have a little rooster who acts like he's going to die every time he molts.  If you have a dominant hen who is molting and acting less than dominant, another hen might be taking advantage of the opportunity and picking on her.

If someone is really getting ripped up, separate them into a temporary pen with another docile companion or two.  I'm not above giving an aggressive bird a time out alone, either.  I've penned a nasty little rooster by himself for a few days at a time before until he learned to settle down.

Feathers take 3-6 weeks to regrow, so you should have plenty of time for your birds to recover before frost - you won't have any naked chickens running around.  But you may have to separate them temporarily until the behavior calms down.

Another trick I've learned to encourage healthy regrowth of feathers is to up the protein in their diet.  You might consider supplementing with a gamebird feed that is 16% protein or giving them extra treats, such as scrambled eggs, while they are molting or to help them recover from fights.  Feathers are made primarily of protein, so increasing their protein intact should encourage good feather growth.

Answer 2

Sometimes Birds Mate by plucking some feathers from the BACK of the female.So they're either mating(if they are different genders)or

they have a problem.

Answer 3

They could be fighting. I have 6 pekin ducks and when they fight they pluck each others fearthers. Or if they have been seperated for a while that could be their way of saying hi or where have you been. Or they could be mating.