Pinless Peepers

Cruella is one unhappy chicken right now.  As the unrepentant instigator of the feather plucking that is plaguing the flock, she was the first to be fitted with the pinless peeper last night.

She's a handsome Barred Rock, isn't she? And oh-not-so-happy with us right now.

I bought a pack of 5 of these from Ebay for just a couple of bucks, so it's worth a try to see if we can break the girls from their bad habit.  These are made of hard plastic and, if you look at the pic to the right, you can see that they have small prongs that fit into the birds nostrils to keep the peepers in place.  The larger areas block the bird from seeing forward - they are essentially blinders for chickens, much like the blinders that they put on race horses to keep them from seeing to the side. The idea is that they won't be able to see the other hens' feathers and pluck them out.

They're a little difficult to put on, and I suspect softening them in a little hot water would have made it easier.  It's definitely a two-person job, with one person holding the chicken still while the other puts the peeper on.  Having done this, I can now say that I never noticed that chickens have such big nostrils.

After we got it on and set Cruella down, she immediately tried to get it off by shaking her head and kicking it off with her feet.  Those prongs hold it firmly in place, however, and she wasn't successful.

She was successful in making me feel like I was being mean to her, though.  I was very concerned that this was hurting her and I wanted to make sure that she could still see to eat and drink, so J. and I spent quite a bit of time with them while they free ranged.  She is able to see - she just has to turn her head a little more than usual.  Other than that, her new pince-nez doesn't appear to be causing her any pain and she went about her chicken business as usual.  She was able to fly up on the roost without any issues when it was bedtime. 

And, yes, I couldn't resist having a little bit of fun with this with the addition of some stick-on googly eyes.  I think the eyelashes add a certain something also, don't you?

Before you call me a meanie, I'll tell you that we removed the eyes right after I took this picture so Cruella's dignity is still intact.  The pinless peeper will stay, however, for several months and then we'll see if she has given up her penchant for featherpicking.

I've shared this post with this week's Barn Hop, Rural Thursdays, and Farmgirl Friday hops.