I was told she was molting and gave her protien foods for the last month... She does not seem to get any better and doesn't lay any eggs... please give me some ideas???
Thanks for the help
PS I am back to DG... whooo hooo
What is this on her back
Is she with a roo? She looks like my two who lost all their back feathers to over-stimulated roos. They are growing back now that I separated them and started using Rooster Booster anti-pick lotion on them.
Looks like too much affection from the rooster. They wear the feathers right off their backs! How old is she? Mine moulted last month and egg production was really low on my one year olds. I've given my girls a break from roosters for a while. (don't we all wish we could get a break from men for a while?)
I reall dont think my roos are old enough,(I put another thread What sex are these) I got her like that a month ago, and there was not another roo with her... she is over a year I think, and the other hen I got with her does not have that problem
Was she fully feathered whe you got her?
nope she was like this and thats when I was told she was molting.
Then it is from a rooster. It can take a long time for a laying hen to replace feathers. Most of their energy goes into producing eggs. She may be an older hen, she looks like a Rode Island Red. I don't keep hens over two years old as a general rule, they don't lay as often and go through a long dry spell when they moult. I try to make my birds earn their keep or it's soup.
I also try to keep only one rooster and make sure he is not a breed that is much bigger than my hens (Your barred rock is fine though) and eather keep the sprs trimmed or replace him every year with a younger one. It's easier on the hens that way.
I have not had a rooster in the pen for almost two months and some of my hens have still not replaced their feathers.
Yes, the hens I got were bald backed when I got them and they are only just now putting out feathers and it is about 6 weeks later now. They are older hens and not laying any more but I still like them. They are light brahmas.
Here are feathers finally starting to grow. Mine were also picking at their own feathers which is why I started to use the anti-pick lotion.
anti pick lotion? wonder if I can get it at the feed store?
Not sure. This is what I got.
http://www.mypetchicken.com/Health_and_Sanitation-Pick_No_More_Lotion__4_oz-P389.aspx
my older hen looked like that when i got her in feb , it took all summer free ranging and lots of laying mash , grain and catfood they grew back nice now , the rooster is still hard on them
Here is a series of 3 photos of my hen's back over time.
First when I got her...early August.
Here in early September after treatments of anti-pick lotion and TLC!
And this morning, Sept. 27.
Yay! They are growing back so beautifully!
Eric and I were just looking at how nice Lacey's tail has filled in. Its just gorgeous, too!
Learned something new yesterday and thought I would pass it along. Apparently the feathers will only grow back in earnest 2 times a year - fall and spring moult. Seems that my girls were lucky that they got separated from the flock around the time of their fall moult and that is why the feathers are now growing back so well. If this happens in early summer, for example, the feathers won't grow back all at once like that until the chicken would have its next moult.
Hope that helps!
Claire
Claire i didn't know you didn't know about the molt or i would have told you:0)
Another point i would like to make here is sometimes if you get a bird who hasn't been taken good care of and feed very low protein food they will molt when they are given the high quality food we all feed ours.
Nutrition plays a big role in a how a chickens feathers look and can even affect the color if you see a black chicken and it has a glossy color and a high green sheen that is a well fed chicken.
Claire did you notice among your rescue chickens did any molt after you got them and the new feathers had a new glossy appearence?
Now that you mention it Harmony, I *did* notice that! Several of them when I first got them started molting, and I thought they were sick! Then I learned about the reason and they look a lot better now - more glossy as you say, and less bedraggled looking, and their old feathers had a sort of dull appearance. I have a few doing it right now, too.
When do chicks do it for the first time? I mean, after they get their first set of feathers instead of down, when do they first molt?
They start molting at 1 year old
Do things change with their colors or anything at the first molt?
Oh I'm glad you now know that your chickens aren't sick when they do this it's the good food you are feeding them.
Who knows they may have never been feed very well their entire lives and you came along and fixed them right up.
You have such a Good Heart Claire:O)
Yes the color of The first feathers you see now will be even more beautiful after the molt.
I think they were just fed sporadically in their life before, and mostly just in the pasture with the goats. I don't think much attention was paid to them. I pay a lot of attention. I think that's why so many of them had those nasty foot things. Poor birds. I am happy I have them now and that they are looking better all the time. :-)
GOOD! I wish every chicken had folks taken care of them like all of us.
They do have a partial "juvenile molt" at about 4 months. You find feathers scattered around and it is a little alarming. It is when the roos start sprouting sickle feathers. I had two pullets I thought were roos because they each had two sickle shaped feathers--the molted them out at the juvenile molt started laying about a month later. Odd.
Thanks Cat i had forgotton about that.
Ohh I love my friends here. I have learned alot from this thread and her feathers are going back in... But my Barred Rocks were loosing feathers and billy has been collecting them They are now all over the house. Now I know why as they are well fed. I will have to get some pix and put them up.
thanks much for the update!
Yay! Glad to hear she is re-feathering.
Yay! Glad to hear they are coming back in. :)
I would Double Check to make sure it is not MITES! I am rather new to Poultry Farming, and I thought that my Roos were giving a little too much attention too..... Until the "molted" and "scruffled" areas became Infected! When I took her to the Vet, we then found out she had a terrible case of Mites!
We used 'Promectin B ' to treat her and she has never been better!
So I would check just to be on the Safe side, you know?
Hello! I have found the answer for naked hens!! CMoxon is right, her feathers are being pulled off by roos. Sometimes he's young and gets too excited, other times she's just the best hen in the bunch and gets 'over sexed', literally. Several years ago, I bought chicken saddles from someone on ebay and have made patterns from them. But since then, I've not had this problem. It wraps around her wings and covers her back. It protects not only from the pulling of the feathers, but also from the roos claws that can actually slice her abdomen wide open (yup, had this one happen, too). Here is a link to a page that has a pattern for them. http://www.homesteadingtoday.com/showthread.php?t=181223 I hope this helps, and good luck!!!
Angi
make her a chicken apron or coat. Google chicken apron and you will find patterns to make them. You just have to fit them to your chickens, and this is easier to do at night when they are less active and the lights are low. they won't like them at first, but they get used to them.
Indeed, when mine first have a coat put on, they walk backwards for about 5 minutes, as if they are trying to shrug out of it, but then they quickly adapt and run around with everyone else.
Okay, now its time to look, duh! Molting...do ALL their feathers fall out at once or do they "shed"? Kinda like a dog? My chickens wont be a year old until next spring and summer. I just dont want to go into shock or something one day when I go out for chicken play time. LOL! jeanmarie
sewincircle,
mine have all done a juvenile molt, ones in the middle of it right now (nice timing huh?), and I just noticed lots of feathers around. Lots of little fuzzy ones and some of the nice big ones. They didn't look too scraggly or anything, just lots of feathers lying around. Well, then again Talula had a gorgeous tail and she just dropped most of the long feathers at once - so that looked pretty silly.
Ohhhhh...I had a roo that had no long feathers. I thought the others pulled them out! I have seen a lot of feathers around though. So they loose the fluffy stuff underneath? Oh poor baby, who was it that made the sweaters? We need to get you one! ;) I will pay more attention to how many feathers are around. Spring and Fall, huh? Okay...thank you!!!!
It's me that made the sweaters! Usually they don't lose enough feathers to make them cold - just makes them look kind of scraggly and wild for a few weeks. Some people even think they might be sick. But no, they're just growing in new feathers. At that time, anybody with bare patches (like hens backs) should also grow in new feathers. Then everybody looks nice and fluffy and shiny again in a few weeks. :-)
My dad has two barred rocks that always have bare behinds. He thinks they pull them out on their own. Why? Ohhh the draft! I do love the sweater CMoxon! How sweet to care so much for the girls. The only one of mine I thought odd was the roo with missing tail feathers but now I know not to panic. Thanks! jeanmarie
Could be lice or mites. I treat mine with Ivomec. Obtained at a farm supply store. One drop from a syringe on the tongue. Kills all parasites. It is a cattle wormer and very effective on dogs and cats. I have been told not to use Ivomec on dogs that have a large amount of collie blood.