At what age and season does moulting (molting??) usually begin?

[Yay Chicks!]

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You could try some Rooster Booster Pick no More. You put in on the area that is getting plucked. The texture and smell/taste discourages picking. You may have to reapply though. Keep it off your clothes as it stains.

 

[AuburnChickenNewbies]

Yes - auto coop doors are great - I've had one since day 1 and love it! I used my own homemade door (3/4" plywood slab painted in exterior grade high gloss benjamin moore paint with old drawer slides as door guides) and purchased an add-a-motor from Discount Home Automation http://www.discounthomeautomation.com/Add-A-Motor-Chicken-Coop-Motor-AD20 I don't have electric so I also ordered their solar kit. It's been great not having to get up early or stay up late. I primarily got it for vacations so I'd have peace of mind that they were getting let out each day because you don't know for sure what that chicken sitter is doing while you are away

Oh! I haven't seen that site before. Their prices seem a little more reasonable. I'll have to take a good hard look at this and see if this makes sense. I like the idea of using old drawer slides too ... hmmmmmmm​

 

[AuburnChickenNewbies]

You could try some Rooster Booster Pick no More. You put in on the area that is getting plucked. The texture and smell/taste discourages picking. You may have to reapply though. Keep it off your clothes as it stains.

I haven't seen that stuff. I'll look at the feed store when I get there later today.

You know, though ... as I'm thinking through this a bit ... I have a couple of bottles of stuff we used to spray on the dogs and other things to discourage liking, chewing, etc. Bitter Apple; Bitter Yuck ... One has "Water, Isopropanol 20%, Bitter Principles and Extractives" (whatever those are). The other has "Rosemary and Bittering Agent" plus water and Soldium Bicarbonate.

What do you think?​

 

[Yay Chicks!]

Quote:
I haven't seen that stuff. I'll look at the feed store when I get there later today.

You know, though ... as I'm thinking through this a bit ... I have a couple of bottles of stuff we used to spray on the dogs and other things to discourage liking, chewing, etc. Bitter Apple; Bitter Yuck ... One has "Water, Isopropanol 20%, Bitter Principles and Extractives" (whatever those are). The other has "Rosemary and Bittering Agent" plus water and Soldium Bicarbonate.

What do you think?

I'm not sure if those would work, mostly because they lack the textural component. They seem to really dislike the stickiness (?) of the pick no more.

 

[Pele]

That does look like feather plucking. Chickens molt in individual ways, so if you see a repeated pattern across your entire flock ,that's a sign of picking.

I would highly recommend Pinless Peepers to you (instead of an Elizabethan collar). They are highly effective and extremely hilarious.

Also, you can increase protien, and if you find out that it's one culprit, seperate her from the flock for two weeks, then dump her fluffy butt back in among them. She'll experience a beat-down that'll knock aggressive habits clean out of her. On rare occasions, you get a hen that can't be rehabilitated, even by the above measures. IF that's the case, she needs to be removed from the flock permenantly.

Pinless Peeper Picture (say that 5 times fast!): http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-qSK70K4Gd8g/TthIiX3mBfI/AAAAAAAAA9g/7WXqVhvY_jo/s1600/DSC_5264.jpg

 

[JodyJo]

I am updating my moulting shots...I concur with the other posters, if you see no feathers protruding yet, I would say feather pecking. I thought the same thing for my flock, till I posted here and was corrected, thankfully. Now I have 4 girls that are in some variance of their first molt at 39 weeks.

 

[AuburnChickenNewbies]

I spent some time with the owner of our local feed store yesterday afternoon. She and I have talked numerous times about dogs, cats ... and now chickens. She has a good-sized flock of her own and also works with the local 4H for their show birds.

After describing what I was seeing, living conditions, feed, etc., she felt strongly that this was likely a result of mites, because of where the bare skin is. She said that her rooster went through something similar recently, so she talked to her farm vet while he was there looking after some of her other animals, and that was the conclusion of their discussion also. I told her that I saw absolutely no evidence of mites when I looked at the birds, but she said that they can be hard to see. We talked about diatomacious earth (which I use in their coop sand, in the nesting boxes, and with which I have dusted the birds), and again, she said that DE just doesn't always take care of the problem. She recommended a permethrin dust, which I've bought. I'll dust the girls later today.

She also thought that it was really important to up the protein level of their food and made a couple of suggestions. Since my birds are also laying heavily, she said that the 4H'ers and other folks with show birds mix Calf-Manna into their food (about 1/3 / 2/3) to add protein to their diet and to improve the quality of their feathers. (The bag of Calf-Manna says it's for poultry too.)

In addition, she said that she mixes scratch with black oil sunflower seeds and raw shelled peanuts, buying a 35-50 pound bag of each and just dumping the whole thing into a metal can for mixing and storage. She felt that was a far superior treat diet than just scratch, and since I tend to throw in leftover veggies and also bread-type leftovers, that this would help balance out their diet a bit better. I bought a bag of sunflower seeds, but not the peanuts at this point (buying dog & cat foods, chicken feed & scratch all at the same time; my budget was screaming a bit!)

I brought up the idea that the birds might just be bored and she thought that was possible, but didn't think I should add flock-block to the pen at this point, saying that she thought it was better to keep things simple for now so that I could watch what was happening and know what was working. I'm going to work on getting the birds out of the coop earlier in the morning, which should keep coop-boredom down. ... Funny though -- this morning hubby had an earlier day, so let them out at about 7. It's still pretty dark around here at that time of the morning and, while they were excited to be let out, they were stumbling around in the dark falling over the divots they've dug, etc. I'll be glad when the days get a bit longer!

By the time we finished our discussion, we had quite a crowd of other chicken-keepers around us all asking questions and offering suggestions as well. All-in-all, it was a productive talk.

 

[AuburnChickenNewbies]

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This is a beautiful bird! I'm going to watch this for a bit and see what happens before going any further with the feather pecking thing. That could definitely be the case, but if it is, it's likely occurring in the coop during nightime hours, so it's hard to pinpoint. For now I'm going to treat for mites, up their protein, and watch for a couple more weeks. Hope my girls start looking like yours soon!

 

[AuburnChickenNewbies]

Just a quick update today ... The two black astrolorps actually look like they have a few new feathers coming out on part of their necks ... But the one EE'ger's neck is looking pretty red and raw today. So .. I'll have to watch her a bit and see if she's getting picked on. Interesting, though... she's the one I could have sworn was a 'roo as she was growing. Always bigger rds and fiestier than any of the others. She still probably the heaviest of all our birds and probably the biggest overall too. Maybe size has nothing to do with getting picked on, I dunno.

 

[JodyJo]

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Thank you Barred Rocks are beautiful...one of mine is the most inquisitive also...here is a "normal" shot of her with her hatch mates: