Chicken Saddles

[sparrker]

One of my chickens has no feathers on her back or top of her wing do to my crazy roosters. So I made her, and some of the others, fleece saddles so their feathers will grow back . Just my one BR has the bare back, how long before the feathers start to grow back? I have 26 hens and 4 roo's, two(?) of these roo's will be dinner soon. How many roo's would be alright with 26 hens? The roo's are fine with each other.

 

[Judy]

Two roos and 26 hens should be fine. The feathers probably won't grow back til the hen molts, depending whether they were broken off or pulled out.

 

[FiascoFarmer]

Two roos and 26 hens should be fine. The feathers probably won't grow back til the hen molts, depending whether they were broken off or pulled out.

So if they are pulled out, will they not grow back till they molt? I have some hens who's bums got picked clean, they were pulled out and some where broken off. The ones that were broken, have sort of grown back, but the ones that were pulled, have not.

 

[stcroixusvi]

The problem is that there are favorites for the roosters, so I am not sure it makes any difference how many you have, but the mix. As I posted in another thread, we finally had to give up are favorite rooster because he was just too heavy for his hens. We had 2 roosters to 16 hens, which is not a bad ratio, but he had his favorites and they lost all their feathers before we finally did something.

 

[stcroixusvi]

I should add that we have 3 coops at the moment to keep everyone happy which is why the math does not add up to my signature line

.

 

[Eliaria]

this happened to me as well. We had two brothers, and they all got along well. It wasn't until this spring when all of a sudden all of my girls were bald on their backs and have no tail feathers. Originally, the guineas were the cause of the loss of tail feathers, so we moved them to a new pen, and then the roosters would both tag team one hen! They've been thrown out since then and now spend their time out in the back yard, 24/7... just the two of them. When I let my hens out, the roosters get locked up in the coop. The feathers are slowly coming back. I've also had to expel an egg eater, but she stays in another pen because I don't want the roosters to get her.