Sitting watching my girls out the kitchen window as I took my coffee and noticed that at least two of my 17 hens has unusually red skin around their vents.
A coyote got two of their compatriots a couple weeks ago and when I examined the pile of feathers that was all that was left of the victims, I noticed that they were thick with tiny hopping black bugs.
Do you think the other hens have these too and that it's causing the red butt syndrome? The hens all spend a good amount of their day preening, but I didn't think anything of it. Seems like a natural behavior, along with pecking and scratching around their run, which is what they do with the other portion of their day.
Oh, I should add two things. First, the same day the coyote got my hens, I went out and recovered their run so they couldn't fly out and become coyote snacks. Second, also that same day, I went to the feed store and picked up some DE, sprinkled any hen I could get within reach of, cleaned out their nest boxes and replaced the straw with fresh wood shavings, heavily dusted with DE.
Input? Thanks!
A coyote got two of their compatriots a couple weeks ago and when I examined the pile of feathers that was all that was left of the victims, I noticed that they were thick with tiny hopping black bugs.
Do you think the other hens have these too and that it's causing the red butt syndrome? The hens all spend a good amount of their day preening, but I didn't think anything of it. Seems like a natural behavior, along with pecking and scratching around their run, which is what they do with the other portion of their day.
Oh, I should add two things. First, the same day the coyote got my hens, I went out and recovered their run so they couldn't fly out and become coyote snacks. Second, also that same day, I went to the feed store and picked up some DE, sprinkled any hen I could get within reach of, cleaned out their nest boxes and replaced the straw with fresh wood shavings, heavily dusted with DE.
Input? Thanks!
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