Feather picked hens

[CricketFarm]

Hi all
I have 9 black copper Marans hens that I've rescued and they are severely feather and head picked, its been about 8 weeks and two of the hens are still bald as babies! Pin feathers will start growing and then they will be gone the next day! They free range in an orchard all day so they are occupied. Any suggestions on how i can get them to start feathering again? Dietary or?

 

[limited25]

Sounds like the hens are eating the feathers as soon as they appear. How old are your chickens?

 

[CricketFarm]

They are 16 months old

 

[limited25]

Your chickens are going to go into a molt soon. Here are a couple good places to read about it:

For the new folks that haven't experienced a molt yet.

http://www.the-chicken-chick.com (there are lots of good articles here. Just type molt into the search box. She also has a lot of videos that are pretty cool, informative, and don't drag on forever.

Might want to read up on feather pickers too (hens that pick feathers).

Best wishes.

 

[CricketFarm]

Okay thank you!! Wht about saddles? Or hens that are picking themselves?

 

[limited25]

Don't know if saddles can prevent a hen from picking her own feathers or not; I do know that one hen can lift up the other hen's saddle and pick feathers from under it because I used to have a hen that did so. Think aprons are good to help prevent damage from a rooster mating a hen.

Below is my experience with a feather picker, but I would imagine others were able to successfully stop it; I wasn't.

BackYard Chickens › BYC Forum › Raising BackYard Chickens › Emergencies / Diseases / Injuries and Cures › Plucking undercarriage

 

[CherylZrimm]

. Help....what started as a small wound has turned into this ugly mess. My hen is doing this to herself. She's yanking out feathers and literally pecking herself to death. No mites no bugs.....I don't know what to do. I've separated her from the flock and am sitting beside her right now watching her tear herself apart. I'm new to the site....can anyone help me please...

 

[limited25]

Repost this question and picture in the "Raising Back Yard Chickens" forum under "Emergencies / Diseases / Injuries and Cures". Use a title like "Help - Hen tearing herself apart" or something similar to catch attention.

That is just scary that she is doing that to herself. Wish I could help but I just don't know.

 

[CherylZrimm]

Thank you

 

[limited25]

Spray her with Vetericyn ( like 3x a day) and apply Neosporin ... equate (triple antibiotic) is the same thing. Don't apply anything with pain killer in it. Then I would spray her with Blue-Kote also. Keep applying Vetericyn and neosporin until she is healed. Not sure how you could cover it, but if she keeps picking after you apply those things I would definitely try.