Bare butts

[fly lady]

PS: I would appreciate Any and All help !! Thank you.

 

[cembry1]

My bare butts dont seem to bother them at all either other than like you said unsighlty. mine have never had sores ever in this whole time frame and mine have not stopped laying just as regular as they always do even with the daylight hours diminishing

 

[foreverlearning]

I apologize for being so long. I have 13 hens - 17 months old of various breeds.

I do not have pictures tonight but several of them for quite sometime have had some degree of bare rumps which I first attributed to my rooster but he "moved"

back in the winter. The bare bottoms never seemed to be an issue other than unattractive.

Now to my horror some of the bare rumps have small size sores: some of them are draining!! and I noticed at least one rump has slightly smaller than an eraser- red spots on rump as well.

They were never vaccinated. I have worked at being attentive in care and cleanliness ac vinegar and DE etc. They have been fed organically.

Almost 3 wks ago my feed source lost the distributor of Natures Best organic pellets/ they now carry Coyote ? Only comes n mash-

Hens went from laying 9-11 eggs day to 3 -5. At first they refused to even eat the coyote brand but that has improved since now mix w/ yogurt or water.

They all seem healthy and happy but what is going on.
They have not been wormed. Is this a nutrition deficiency this quick?

The sores lead me to believe either mites or feather pickers. Most likely mites. Is your coop untreated wood on the inside? If so, they would hide in the cracks in the daytime. They are really good at hiding! First, check to make sure you don't have any feather pickers (check at roost time when they are most likely to try). If you don't have feather pickers, go out at nighttime (long after roost) with a flashlight and check their butts, the roost, and any wood for signs of mites. Treatment is a long process, First poultry dust or sevin 5% powder on the birds, cover them well except head. Let them out and close off the coop for cleaning/painting. Scrub the entire coop down well and dry. Make sure you throw out any bedding where your birds can't get to them. Then spray the entire coop with liquid sevin. *Liquid sevin is dangerous to the birds, when it dries there is no harm. Make sure they cannot access the sevin while wet.* Then it is painting time, I suggest Killz. It is super thick and kills anything hence the name, also its cheap. Make sure you paint all the cracks. When the coop is dry, place new bedding in and the girls can go back in. In my humid climate sevin takes 15 min to dry and killz 1 1/2 hours. Retreat in 10 days with poultry dust.

 

[lupitasla]

Hi!

I totally agree with you. I have only 3 hens here in Los Angeles because my husband and I are not big egg eaters but we love nothing more than fresh laid eggs!

We made buying them fun for 3 of my grandsons we picked a brown hen and a black hen then we rescued a one eyed white scrawny hen.

They all get along fine but only the brown hen has a bare but and maybe 4 tail feathers. She is happy and doesn't know how funny she looks. No bugs they all 3 lay daily. I also grow collard greens and kale and they love it.

I'm stumped too.

Lupe