arazla
Songster
My alpha hen Calico has hairs growing various places. Mostly on her lower back where she has suffered from feather loss off and on, most likely from over mating, though it's not always clear. I didn't notice this until I took a few of my chooks to the vet for a checkup. He seemed to think it was due to malnutrition from whatever feed we were using. However, this doesn't quite make sense to me because none of the other hens have these hairs. I accidentally said we were trying out Green Mountain, which he does NOT recommend and feels is inadequate, but in fact, I've never bought that. We had just bought a bag of New Country Organics and I was getting confused. We usually feed Nutrena, Healthy Harvest or Henhouse Reserve.
Calico is currently about 15 months old. She's one of my OGs, has always been irritable and kind of a b-tch to the other hens. Her health issues don't seem to have changed any of that, except that she doesn't seem to want to be around other chickens all that much. She walks slower than most, wanders, and seems more lethargic of late. From a straight run we had 4 roos and 4 hens, so we've slowly added hens over the past year and created 2 flocks. When there's no rooster around she can act like a roo and do a shuffle dance so that and the wandering may explain why she gets targeted by the roos more often. I've tried almost every apron on the market and have yet to find one that works right for every hen, covers all the vulnerable places and doesn't flop over when they're running away. Ugh. But I'm all ears if anyone has thoughts on that.
Could these hairs be a stress reaction from adding new girls and over mating? Are these hairs a common thing? A specific nutrition issue for her? Allergies? The vet didn't find signs of mites or lice, though we've had lice before, so not ruling that out.
Calico is currently about 15 months old. She's one of my OGs, has always been irritable and kind of a b-tch to the other hens. Her health issues don't seem to have changed any of that, except that she doesn't seem to want to be around other chickens all that much. She walks slower than most, wanders, and seems more lethargic of late. From a straight run we had 4 roos and 4 hens, so we've slowly added hens over the past year and created 2 flocks. When there's no rooster around she can act like a roo and do a shuffle dance so that and the wandering may explain why she gets targeted by the roos more often. I've tried almost every apron on the market and have yet to find one that works right for every hen, covers all the vulnerable places and doesn't flop over when they're running away. Ugh. But I'm all ears if anyone has thoughts on that.
Could these hairs be a stress reaction from adding new girls and over mating? Are these hairs a common thing? A specific nutrition issue for her? Allergies? The vet didn't find signs of mites or lice, though we've had lice before, so not ruling that out.
