What's wrong with our chickens?

[Daze N Paradise]

Our chickens are losing their feathers on their backsides, their heads and on the top of their backs. Also, we've noticed that their eggs used to be a beautiful brown, and now they are much whiter. Any ideas?

 

[realsis]

hi there. have you checked them for mites lice or bugs? it could be bugs causing this. how long has it been since you dusted them for bugs? maybe they are due for a dusting? are you sure they are not molting? also sometimes a rooster can cause feather on the top of heads and back.. my guess would be check for bugs and give them a good dusting. I hope this helps. maybe you can post a picture so we could get a better idea of what's happening? I wish you the best and hope this helps.

 

[seminolewind]

Realsis is right about checking for bugs. Some bugs can suck a chicken dry of blood. Also worms. The other thing is are they molting? If they are molting , they may act a bit weird, and eventually take a break from laying.

I hope their diet is mostly chicken feed with protein and calcium.

 

[chooks4life]

Knowing what breed they are would probably help, for example production reds tend to moult hard. Roosters easily de-feather that breed by accident because all their available protein goes into their eggs so they tend to have crappy weak feathering. Could be lice, I guess, though I've never seen lice defeather a bird, but then I've never had problems with lice either. Old birds tend to lose feathers and not grow them back. Chooks on a deficient diet or in a really boring small cage can defeather each other or themselves. There could be a lot of causes.

 

[Daze N Paradise]

Thanks for all the advice. We are new at chickens. Actually, they won a trophy and blue ribbon at the 4-H competition in January, and then started this around March or so. What do you dust them with? We prefer all natural versus chemicals. I will take a picture and post it, maybe tomorrow. The hens are Black Sex Link. They are about a year old. We were just wondering what could make their eggs turn white? We feed them mostly layer pellets and corn chops, with bread sometimes and sometimes greens from our garden. They are in moderate sized pens, and could be bored. We are building a bigger place for them soon. Again, thanks for your help!

 

[Noobchick]

Sounds like a molt to me- it happens around the one year mark. My birds' eggs got paler right before they molted. Check them over for lice or mites before you dust them. You'll probably see the buggies if that's the problem. Check the chickens' vents, base of neck, base of tail, and under wings, especially. Do a check at night too; some mites only come out at night.

Really just sounds like a molt. You can do a search for "molt" here on this site. There are lots of pictures you can compare your girls to.

 

[chooks4life]

Quote:
I prefer natural too. I give them raw garlic in their diet as a staple, and have never had lice problems. I don't dust them. they ought to be doing that themselves when they dirt bathe, if you've got anywhere they can do that, Since mine freerange they dustbathe in a few places, and sometimes I add a sprinkle of lime or ash to their dirt bath areas to kill any lice or eggs. I've done that only a couple of times over the years though, it seems much better to treat them through diet, though if they've already got lots of lice they'd need treating for that.

 

[Daze N Paradise]

How much garlic do you give them? Here's a picture of our chickens. I'm a little late posting the picture. Thanks so much for the helpful answers!

 

[arizonarancher]

Looks like what some roosters do to hens when they are overbreeding them.

 

[chooks4life]

Looks to me like the sort of feather loss usually associated with commercial layer breeds and their immediate descendants if cross bred. I think these hens get defeathered by roosters because a higher percentage of their intake of protein goes to the eggs than many other breeds. They thus tend to be rough feathered and their feathers break easily, they moult hard and long, etc, unless kept on generally a fairly different diet than what is recommended for two eggs a day layers or those hens known to produce over a hundred eggs a year. Other breeds don't usually show bare patches when moulting because the lost feathers are being replaced in the correct time to avoid that.

As for garlic, I give them a clove per bird per day on average. They can eat a lot more than that but even in adult humans a raw clove of garlic a day can help many problems, so it's potent stuff if you've got a good source. The active antibiotic property in garlic, Allicin, is created by the enzymes released when the clove is crushed, s I mince it for them.

If they're not allowed to freerange at all I would probably treat them a bit more thoroughly since any lice levels would be more easily able to build up, for example when one hen dustbathes and another one follows the second would be potentially picking up some lice the first bird rid herself of, being a closed environment. You could probably find some other threads with info on what other people recommend putting in dirt bath areas, I've used ash (from non treated wood) and agricultural lime, as in the stuff they feed to animals, and coarse diatomaceous earth. I think a lot of people use the pool-filter-grade D.E. and therefore have little results. It comes in various grades and I would seek a brand specifically used to worm horses or other livestock, not what you can get from the local pool supplies joint.