alyssahockings
In the Brooder
- May 23, 2022
- 16
- 6
- 36
So to start this post it needs to be clear that this is my first time owning chickens, and although i’ve had them for over a year i’m still learning.
So i have three hens, and two female ducks who are peas in a pod(?). for the last year that i’ve had my chickens and the last 5 months i’ve had my ducks they’ve been bestfriends, spending all day together, never saw any fights, no one picked on each other, everyone was healthy, and at night, instead of sleeping in the multiple roosts, nesting boxes AND dog kennel i did up all available, they, all 5, would choose to pile into a singular nesting box to sleep literally squished up together (i don’t know if there is a reason for this other than them being friendly? tell me if there’s another reason lol). Anyway, that was the situation. But about 5 weeks ago my hen started loosing feathers on her chest. normal right i thought it was just molting. But then it became a total bald chest and i don’t know if that’s common for molting but then i noticed she’s COMPLETELY bare not around her vent but her entire underside BUT her vent, which the feathers over the last few days have become very dirty. I went through options like mites but couldn’t see any evidence on her, and mite treatment hasn’t done anything. So then i thought she’s about to get broody, maybe loosing feathers so she can keep eggs warmer? but she’s laying normally and no broody behaviour. but on the behaviour front she’s completely normal. That is, until the last couple days my three chickens have started pecking each other’s heads or pinning them down to peck them etc. only one incident has resulted in blood but what is going on? are they stressed? i thought maybe they’re sorting a pecking order again (which i’ve never seen evidence of a pecking order before which i also thought was strange), they have a huge coop plus huge run and constant all day access to my decent sized yard, food, water, aswell as things like cabbages and lettuce hung up for boredom. I don’t know if i should be concerned. Any help is appreciated
So i have three hens, and two female ducks who are peas in a pod(?). for the last year that i’ve had my chickens and the last 5 months i’ve had my ducks they’ve been bestfriends, spending all day together, never saw any fights, no one picked on each other, everyone was healthy, and at night, instead of sleeping in the multiple roosts, nesting boxes AND dog kennel i did up all available, they, all 5, would choose to pile into a singular nesting box to sleep literally squished up together (i don’t know if there is a reason for this other than them being friendly? tell me if there’s another reason lol). Anyway, that was the situation. But about 5 weeks ago my hen started loosing feathers on her chest. normal right i thought it was just molting. But then it became a total bald chest and i don’t know if that’s common for molting but then i noticed she’s COMPLETELY bare not around her vent but her entire underside BUT her vent, which the feathers over the last few days have become very dirty. I went through options like mites but couldn’t see any evidence on her, and mite treatment hasn’t done anything. So then i thought she’s about to get broody, maybe loosing feathers so she can keep eggs warmer? but she’s laying normally and no broody behaviour. but on the behaviour front she’s completely normal. That is, until the last couple days my three chickens have started pecking each other’s heads or pinning them down to peck them etc. only one incident has resulted in blood but what is going on? are they stressed? i thought maybe they’re sorting a pecking order again (which i’ve never seen evidence of a pecking order before which i also thought was strange), they have a huge coop plus huge run and constant all day access to my decent sized yard, food, water, aswell as things like cabbages and lettuce hung up for boredom. I don’t know if i should be concerned. Any help is appreciated
