dreamofwinter
Songster
Again I write to you, oh wise BYC friends, looking for answers to a chicken puzzle.
My 2-year-old hatchery stock Barred Rock hen, Blaze, looks like a battery hen. She dropped many of her feathers last fall but never fully molted (nor stopped laying, as far as I could tell). She was injured by one of my cockerels while breeding (because she is so naked) and spent a few weeks inside this January recovering; during this time she laid an egg a day, with only one day's break when she was first injured and one soft shelled egg the day after.
She's continued to lose feathers, some to breakage because she's been carrying them since September-ish of 2021. At this point her body is almost entirely feather-free, as are the tops of her wings. Her tail is a sad four feathers and I'm sure those will go soon too. Her skin is pretty red and irritated. She's her usual cheerful self and I haven't observed her (or anyone else) picking, plucking, or otherwise injuring her. She has been wearing a saddle but won't wear one with wing covers or one padded enough to really protect her from the cockerel, so she's now living with one other hen in my Eglu.
So at this point you're saying to yourself, must be parasites! And I have wondered that too. But - I can't find a darn thing on her. None of the other chickens she lives with have any issues, nor do the ducks. All the others molted and grew back feathers normally, though the other two BRs took a long time doing it and looked pretty rough at some points.
What would you do next? Treat her for parasites even though none are visible? Treat the whole flock? Is there a way to encourage her to finish her molt and grow new feathers in?
Do some hens just not have good feathering genes? Could it be that her fairly severe injury mid-molt somehow stopped the molting and feather growth cycle?
More about her living situation:
She lives in a 10x14 shed with good ventilation and tons of roost space, currently sharing with 7 other chickens and 9 ducks. The shed has been bedded in shavings and straw over the winter and is due for a spring cleanout (ugggh). She eats Poulin Premium Layer pellets, occasional scratch and veggie trimmings, and whatever she finds when free-ranging each afternoon on our 17 acres. She is neither the top hen nor the bottom, somewhere closer to the top than bottom for sure. As I said before, no signs of parasites on her other than the fact that her feathers have either fallen out or broken off on over half her body; she's in good weight; she is bright and alert and sassy.
She also Haaaaaaates being held - always has - so getting any decent photos will be very hard. I'll try to grab some tonight or tomorrow though.
My 2-year-old hatchery stock Barred Rock hen, Blaze, looks like a battery hen. She dropped many of her feathers last fall but never fully molted (nor stopped laying, as far as I could tell). She was injured by one of my cockerels while breeding (because she is so naked) and spent a few weeks inside this January recovering; during this time she laid an egg a day, with only one day's break when she was first injured and one soft shelled egg the day after.
She's continued to lose feathers, some to breakage because she's been carrying them since September-ish of 2021. At this point her body is almost entirely feather-free, as are the tops of her wings. Her tail is a sad four feathers and I'm sure those will go soon too. Her skin is pretty red and irritated. She's her usual cheerful self and I haven't observed her (or anyone else) picking, plucking, or otherwise injuring her. She has been wearing a saddle but won't wear one with wing covers or one padded enough to really protect her from the cockerel, so she's now living with one other hen in my Eglu.
So at this point you're saying to yourself, must be parasites! And I have wondered that too. But - I can't find a darn thing on her. None of the other chickens she lives with have any issues, nor do the ducks. All the others molted and grew back feathers normally, though the other two BRs took a long time doing it and looked pretty rough at some points.
What would you do next? Treat her for parasites even though none are visible? Treat the whole flock? Is there a way to encourage her to finish her molt and grow new feathers in?
Do some hens just not have good feathering genes? Could it be that her fairly severe injury mid-molt somehow stopped the molting and feather growth cycle?
More about her living situation:
She lives in a 10x14 shed with good ventilation and tons of roost space, currently sharing with 7 other chickens and 9 ducks. The shed has been bedded in shavings and straw over the winter and is due for a spring cleanout (ugggh). She eats Poulin Premium Layer pellets, occasional scratch and veggie trimmings, and whatever she finds when free-ranging each afternoon on our 17 acres. She is neither the top hen nor the bottom, somewhere closer to the top than bottom for sure. As I said before, no signs of parasites on her other than the fact that her feathers have either fallen out or broken off on over half her body; she's in good weight; she is bright and alert and sassy.
She also Haaaaaaates being held - always has - so getting any decent photos will be very hard. I'll try to grab some tonight or tomorrow though.
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My current boy is a lot easier on the girls than his predecessor, who was the biggest Orpington I'd ever seen (and only 8 months old!) - but the damage still accumulates even on the well-feathered hens. And this looks like a perfect solution for poor Blaze.
