Causes and solutions of pecking in flock of birds

Farm chicken eating from an automatic feeder. [iStockphoto]

Gentle pecking of feathers where the recipient is calm and not reacting is a normal social behaviour of birds and should never worry anyone. But in situations where the pecking is more violent, and the victim sometimes responds by making squawking noise is a sign of things going wrong and that behaviour of aggressiveness need to be investigated. Any form of this behaviour, be it feather pecking or vent pecking is mostly associated with the following stressful conditions.