Disease?

Hello everybody,
I seem to have made a vow to pick up everything a chick can get. At this stage I have the feeling that my cock looses a lot of feathers. do chicken change their feathers like cats or dogs change their fur?
Furthermore I have a white hen which used to lay eggs. Since I have started to treat her intensly on her scaley leg mites, and since the other hen has started breading, jipeeeeeeh, she does not lay eggs anymore though fed laying meel.
Do my chicks have any kind of pest? Please help

Several things here. You don't mention ages of the chickens, so...yes, chickens molt. They change all their feathers at least once if not 2x/yr. Birds do not lose all their feathers at once. Chickens do tend to get scrufty when they are molting. The other possibility is bugs. If you have scaley leg mites, chances are you have you have feather mites. Look at your birds faces closely. See if there are any tiny moving dots on them. Also check under the wings and vents as they mites like to hide and breed there. Best treatment I've found for mites, as I do not want to use chemical insecticides on my flock, is diatomatous earth or DE. Dust the birds with it for as many days as it takes to not see moving dots any more. Than dust a few more days. Google DE and read about it before using as you need to use only food grade, protect from respiritory problems etc. Clean your coop and dust with DE to kill any little critters that may reinfest your birds.
How old is the hen that stopped laying eggs? What are you using to treat the scalies? Older (2-3 yrs) will stop laying, They may also stop laying if stressed. Hope this helps. I know exactly what you mean about getting everything they can pick up! My suggestions come from experience after my 1st yr having chickens!
Good luck

Good morning,
thank you for your reply.
all my chicken are about 1 year old. I found this morning that they have enormous poos, I thought my dog had gotten into the cage. We are busy building a smaller cage for the breeding hen so that she will have her own food and greens and that the chicks will be safe. Than we will put the other two on a diet since they are surely eating too much and don't drink the same amount they would need for the laying meel.


Ok it is the first time in the 9 months we have the chicken that the cock looses feathers. He is not naked or anything like that I just see that there are feathers lying around, more than usual. So I'll check him, have to get hold of him twice a week anyway to treat his legs. Regarding the treatment we have a little problem in Namibia getting all the lovely stuff you guys are talking about. Is there any household stuff one could use like ashes or so to kill the mites?
The scales we tret by advice of guys from the forum. We have tryed to treat it for over 6 months and nothing helped so the feet got really bad I only find out now how bad since they return to normal shape. We are bathing the legs in luke warm soap water and brushing the scaled gently with an old toothbrush. Afterwards we dip them in Castor oil. They are so much better but not good yet. Maybe that stresses the hen though she does not really try to escape when we get hold of her for treatment.

Huummm. I guess I don't really ever think about all the great stuff we have available here. Didn't realize where you are from. I guess you don't have a wonderful Tractor Supply store. Sorry about that. In thinking about it, ashes could work for mites. They'd be scratchy like DE. I would be inclined to mix them with sand and dirt and put the mixture in a place where your chickens dust bathe. Since I don't know what kind of setup you have, If they don't have access to any dust bathing spots, you could use a large pan or something to put the dirt mixture in to somewhat contain it. When I 1st started with my chickens, I had the in the "coop" all the time. I say "coop" because mine is a fairly large, now formerly screened in back porch. I mixed sand, dirt and DE into an old dog crate pan and put it down and they all tried to jump in it immediatly! I think I would use the ashes sparingly, thinking that if they get wet, it possibly could cause skin burns? I know ashes can be used in place of lye for soap making. Lye is very caustic. That's my train of thought there.
I've also heard that putting petroleum jelly on the legs with the scalies will kill them. If they are getting better after being so bad, the mites might be gone and the legs seem to take awhile to heal. Probably just keep on keeping on with what you're doing.
As far as egg laying, I have no idea what the weather is like in Namibia. I do know some hens won't lay as much if it gets hotter then normal? Also if she is breeding, she may be laying somewhere her eggs somewhere else. Is she around as much as usual? If not she may possibly be brooding or sitting on the eggs. Sometimes it's hard to guess. Good luck with all that.

Good morning Just Hatched. you are quite right about the lovely store we do not have but we do have a fire place that produces ashes and I have put those ashes in the spot already where they sunbath. So I am not as dumb at all. Thanks for the confirmation.
The one henn is brooding on 8 eggs, jipeeeeeh can't wait for the littleones to hatch, but the other one has stopped laying eggs altogether. I guess she does not like being picked up twice a week to have her legs treated but she will just have to bear with me, since getting her legs into shape again is much more important. The weather is we have winter. It is mild and misty, some days like today we have sunshine and it is almost summer like weather. I want to really thank myou for your patience. I am a greenhorn so I will have tuns of questions as time goes by. Will post a picture of the babies once they have hatched.

It's been a pleasure. I enjoy talking to and learning about ppl from other countries. Hope we can continue to talk. This is my 2nd yr as a "chicken farmer" Seems most of it is experience and common sense! I have found this site to be very informative, learning new things and confirming things I have already experienced and/or tried. Good luck with your chicks and your non-laying hen.

Dear Peaceeagle, oh yes every once in a while I will check the site. I am a Tour Operator back here in Namibia and am busy like mad so this private stuff is actually very seldom but I was worried sick. We have caged our brooding hen now, she is not too pleased that she can no longer get to the other chicken but she accepts it and returns to her eggs.
All of a sudden the white hen has laid an egg yesterday and one today as well. No idea what made her stop. I'll keep you posted about the chickies but we are travelling to South Africa for a week so until than I am gong to be quiet.
Have a great day everybody

Hurray for the eggs! Have a good trip.

Hello everybody, I asm sorry that I have been quiet for so long but life is really busy over here and the chicken farm is growing. As you might recall I keep picking up what ever is possible and at this stage I have almost all my hens with bare bumbs. I do treat them on scaley leg mites, I eventually found a vet who cares and she could help which makes my cock all back to his tasks but I am scared that whatever the hens have they will pass on to the little ones. Also my second cock has lost his colar. What can this be. I don't want to use poison in overflow as that will harm them as well but I need to get rid of this whatever it is. Any suggestions

ChickyNamibia said:

.... I keep picking up what ever [ailment] is possible and at this stage I have almost all my hens with bare bumbs. ...Any suggestions

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Yes read up on feather shaft, quill, or depluming mites. Don't bother looking for the little buggers because they are safe and secure inside the feather quill where they eventually cause the feather that they've infested to fall out.