Forever molting

[farmmanjim]

I have 15 Rhode island's, 11 Jersey giants, 1 gold sex link, and now 10 new red sexlinks. My Rhodes starting molting last July and are still a mess. This is March, 8 months later and they are still just adding down. They've had laying crumble 16%_ starter crumble 22%, cat food, free range occasionally, and a 60X150 yard. Am I missing something besides my eggs?

 

[OrganicFarmWife]

I would take them off the layer feed and put them on high protein feed. The cat food is great, but they do not need the calcium if they are not laying.

 

[OrganicFarmWife]

And you could switch to pellets at this point, won't affect the molting at all, but might reduce your waste.

 

[aart]

Might be a good idea to dust anyway....and get them on a higher protein feed without calcium, will help grow feathers out.

I like to feed a flock raiser/grower/finisher 20% protein crumble to all ages and genders, as non-layers(chicks, males and molting birds) do not need the extra calcium that is in layer feed and chicks and molters can use the extra protein. Makes life much simpler to store and distribute one type of chow that everyone can eat. I do grind up the crumbles (in the blender) for the chicks for the first week or so.

The higher protein crumble also offsets the 8% protein scratch grains and other kitchen/garden scraps I like to offer. I adjust the amounts of other feeds to get the protein levels desired with varying situations.

Calcium should be available at all times for the layers, I use oyster shell mixed with rinsed, dried, crushed chicken egg shells in a separate container.

Animal protein (mealworms, a little cheese - beware the salt content, meat scraps) is provided during molting and if I see any feather eating.

 

[aart]

I have 15 Rhode island's, 11 Jersey giants, 1 gold sex link, and now 10 new red sexlinks. My Rhodes starting molting last July and are still a mess. This is March, 8 months later and they are still just adding down. They've had laying crumble 16%_ starter crumble 22%, cat food, free range occasionally, and a 60X150 yard. Am I missing something besides my eggs?

Sounds like more than a diet problem...but more info is needed.

Did the other birds molt too?
How old are they all?
Only the RIR's not growing feathers back?
'Adding down' is not something any adult bird does...chicks are born with down but soon replace it with 'real' feathers. Can you post some pics of these birds?

 

[farmmanjim]

I got the hens from a neighbor who moved in December 2014. They were in a cramped filthy pen and had been born in early 2014. I built a new house for them and a 12x16 pen. I change the flakes in their house every 8 weeks approx. And put down DE after cleaning the house and before adding flakes. I change their nest boxes at same time and us DE in them also. They went thru winter 2014 and spring 2015 fine. 38 hens were laying 33 eggs each day. In summer 2015 only the RIR, (I'm sure they are RIRs), appeared to start molting but seems to have never stopped. I provided heat all winter for them but they didn't seem to mind the cold. I got 20 eggs a week in winter. This spring I'm getting about 12 each day. This week I noticed my gold sex link is getting bald at her tail on the back and several of my jersey giants are no getting bald chest and butts. I created a larger fenced area this spring of about 40x80. Gonna try to add some pics.

 

[farmmanjim]

[/IMG]Did any pictures show up?

 

[farmmanjim]

[/IMG]Did any pictures show up?

 

[farmmanjim]

Apparently byc doesnt work with android tablets

 

[farmmanjim]