I'm having a frustrating issue and I'm wondering if anyone else is seeing it too.
Since late spring last year I've been getting ruffled feathers over my juveniles' and pullets' backs. The first issues were in my first hatch of the year, well hatches really, where I had a lot of infertility, mortality in shell, and failure to thrive once hatched. As the chicks that did hatch and survive grew, I started seeing these ruffled feather issues, basically it's all of the feathers on their backs standing straight up, all the time. It can't be rooster treading, and there really aren't any other outside factors that I can think of that would cause this besides a vitamin deficiency in the feed.
What really has me eyeballing the feed as well is that I brought six grown pullets home Memorial Day weekend from my breeder/mentor and they looked perfectly fine, as they should. This past week, I'm seeing their back feathers standing straight up now too. Obviously, it's something here causing this. Our water is fine, there aren't any toxins in my barn, etc.
My theory is that with the supply and distribution delays related to COVID-19 the vitamins in the feed must be degrading more than usual before the feed makes it to my barn. I know for some of the vitamins it can be as short as 2 months before they're impacted. I've been feeding Nutrena All Flock and Nutrena Chick Starter almost the whole time, the first time I noticed an issue I had been feeding Rural King's store line of chick feed and switched to Nutrena in case it was simply a quality issue, although they're both produced by Cargill Nutrition. I have ordered the Fertrell poultry breeder supplement to add to my current feed, hopefully that clears it up.
Was just wondering if anyone has seen this lately.
Since late spring last year I've been getting ruffled feathers over my juveniles' and pullets' backs. The first issues were in my first hatch of the year, well hatches really, where I had a lot of infertility, mortality in shell, and failure to thrive once hatched. As the chicks that did hatch and survive grew, I started seeing these ruffled feather issues, basically it's all of the feathers on their backs standing straight up, all the time. It can't be rooster treading, and there really aren't any other outside factors that I can think of that would cause this besides a vitamin deficiency in the feed.
What really has me eyeballing the feed as well is that I brought six grown pullets home Memorial Day weekend from my breeder/mentor and they looked perfectly fine, as they should. This past week, I'm seeing their back feathers standing straight up now too. Obviously, it's something here causing this. Our water is fine, there aren't any toxins in my barn, etc.
My theory is that with the supply and distribution delays related to COVID-19 the vitamins in the feed must be degrading more than usual before the feed makes it to my barn. I know for some of the vitamins it can be as short as 2 months before they're impacted. I've been feeding Nutrena All Flock and Nutrena Chick Starter almost the whole time, the first time I noticed an issue I had been feeding Rural King's store line of chick feed and switched to Nutrena in case it was simply a quality issue, although they're both produced by Cargill Nutrition. I have ordered the Fertrell poultry breeder supplement to add to my current feed, hopefully that clears it up.
Was just wondering if anyone has seen this lately.
