bare bottoms

[michelle9805]

hi, got 6 chickens, who have been laying all through the winter, but now 5 of them have no feathers on their bottoms down their legs
and it looks very sore, they are out of the run all day, one of them has no loss of feathers, they have been wormed, checked for mites
and doused them just in case, now applying anti pecking spray to no avail it seems. other then their bums they all look and act healthy
please someone help my poor little girls

 

[Kittymomma]

Hi and

What are you feeding them? Feather pecking is usually either a boredom/overcrowding issue or diet (low protien) problem.

 

[michelle9805]

hi, they have porridge or pasta in morning, layers pellets with corn and oyster shell throught out the day, then of course what ever they
find in the day as they are out all day along never in the run, so i dont know bout bored, what would you suggest i feed them to get
them back to the healthy girls they were

 

[Kittymomma]

I'm not sure how much corn you're giving them, but if it's more then just a treat it will lower their protien intake to the point that they often have issues like those you described. I'd cut out the corn ( AKA chicken candy) and either stick to the layer or maybe switch to a higher protien gamebird feed for awhile. I feed 2-3 cups of corn scratch a day to 26 chickens and mine are on 22% gamebird with free choice oyster shell. Mine free range too and I think boredom is unlikely, probably not enough protien. You can also scramble some of their eggs and feed them back to them for a quick protien boost.