Chickens for 10-20 years or more? Pull up a rockin' chair and lay some wisdom on us!

[TonySorrento]

I don't know why I didn't come here in the first place for this ...

On Monday [FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]I took this picture of my 16 week old Silver Dorking Rooster ...[/FONT]

The next day after work I saw many of his saddle feathers gone ... and then I watched the hens picking his feathers off ... he has been acting totally normal, except that he doesnt turn around and open up a can on them. There was no blood as they were just pulling his feathers off. He was eating and drinking normally, crowing like crazy as usual. I was told that protein may be the answer and as I had changed over to a lesser protein feed, I went and purchased Flockraiser which is a 20% protein, 5% higher than the Dumor I was giving them.

FF to today,The protein was not the answer as they still do it

.... its not all the time, but it is a little from every bird (22 of them ) and now most of his big tail feathers have been plucked out

... they drew a little blood and were attacking the spot more aggressively that ever ...On to TSC and bought some blue coate .... sprayed the blue coate on and the birds went right to picking, but the recoiled back in disgust and wiped their beaks on the ground and left him alone ...

Is there anything else I can do? Is Blue Kote a natural deterent by covering the red AND taste? Why is this happening?

My flock dynamics are 23 birds total, 2 of which are roosters that are 17 weeks old now ... the Dorking was the boss ... but it is looking like the Buttercup has slid in that position ... the hens are from 9-18 weeks old ... all get along ... my birds are in a coop that is 9.5'x12' and a run that is 10x28 ..... thoughts?

 

[Achickenwrangler#1]

no i was kind of meaning theres a difference between being a jerk and just dont read it if you dont like it.

Sorry, I'm confused now, who you mean was being a jerk? But once you've red something, you can't unread it!

 

[myfinefeatheredfriends]

I don't know why chickens are so picky, but they are. I have an Easter Egger hen who was born with a cross beak. She has to have deep bowls to eat/drink from. Well when she drinks, some of the water falls from her beak and leaves a trail down her neck. I don't why but my Brahma hen will pick the feathers off where the trail of water runs down her neck. She is completely bald on her neck but only in the spot where the water drips. She also will rip out feathers from my growing ducks' wings and eat them. I too tried putting Blu Kote on my EE's neck but it didn't help. Why she does this is beyond me but I don't have a problem with any of my other chickens except her. They are all on the same food so I don't think it's the protein. It's possible she may be deficient in a certain vitamin so she eats bloody feathers to satisfy her craving. I separated her from all the others and gave her vitamins/electrolytes in her water. It eased the pecking considerably but I still put vitamins/electrolytes in the flocks' waterers every so often to make sure it doesn't happen again.

 

[Erin~TheChickenLover]

Well, do to the fact that I have nothing to lose, I am going to try something. On my property, we have tons of rock, everything from broad flat rocks to rocks the size of a truck. I am going to take the thin, broad, flat rocks that I can find and fit them together to cover about 1/3 of the main chicken pen floor. The idea is that this will make a stone floor that will cut back on the incredibly annoying mud. I will put straw over the rock. I don't know how well or how bad this will work, so I definitely won't cover too much of the chicken pen floor this way. I'm hoping that this will keep the straw cleaner and make everything more sanitary. I'll take pictures of the "stone floor" after I get it assembled and put them on here with updates on how it does.

 

[Back2MyRoots]

*sigh* Thanks much for all the PMs with actual helpful advise. Not sure that I have done the wrong thing by buying the chicks I have from the auction, but you are entitled to your opinion. They are here now, so I plan on making the most of it. 18 out of 19 birds thriving isn't too bad of a percentage, I think. The fact that I still haven't lost a chick since I bought my first girls a couple of months ago means I am doing at least something right. I bet at least a few of yall had less than graceful starts with your chickens, bless your hearts. Bless mine too, I'm here now and I'm not going anywhere.

 

[Beekissed]

Of course we have! This is exactly why we participate in this thread and convey the results of our mistakes to newbies so that they don't have to make those same mistakes. If the tone or tenor of that advice seems rough or not sugary enough for said newbies, it's merely because we just don't get into all the mushy, huggy, oh, honey stuff like the other threads. It seriously isn't meant to sound mean or jerkish in any way we are just tired of having to preface all our advice with all the polite, gentle chit chat that seems required reading on BYC.

The first few pages are the explanation for that tone...we are participating in a thread that gives you free, valuable advice so that you won't have to make the same mistakes that we made and if it sounds like tough love, it is. We have better things to do with our lives than nurture and nurse along a bunch of newbies, just like all the oldsters had better things to do that we have learned from...and the advice they gave us was pretty much just as gruff.

And we learned that the OTs seriously didn't care if we followed that advice....but they cared enough to give it. And, for me at least, that was enough....it might not sound sweet, it might even sound mean, but it was still the best advice I ever got and when I followed it, it worked. Did I care if the OT made me sound like an idiot when I asked about the things I needed to know? Nope. I asked because I didn't know and they answer because they didn't mind sharing what they did know but they certainly weren't going to tie it up in a red bow and try to make me feel good about it....nor did I expect it. I'm a big girl and I don't need to be treated like a child if I'm old enough to care for animals.

The fact that we even take the time to answer the questions should be something to be thankful for...it's not something we simply HAVE to do. Some days we feel mellow and try to sugar it up some, some days we just simply don't have the time or will to make it into a nice package. Either way you still get a valuable product...it's up to you if you want to use it~ or throw it away simply because it came in an ugly, brown box. No one's being mean to you or trying to hurt your feelings and that is made pretty clear on the first few pages...this is just how we talk amongst each other and on this thread. If that sort of thread isn't something a reader wishes to experience the first pages made it sufficiently clear enough that one could opt out of using this thread to garner advice.

There are much sweeter threads and people out there who are eager to PM you and offer you all kinds of advice and you have many options besides this thread, which is a great thing!

 

[FuzzyButtsFarm]

Once again Bee very well said. I wish I could put my thoughts together that well. I seem to come off sounding to gruff but that's not the way I mean it. Just call me old nurse Crachet.

 

[Achickenwrangler#1]

Well, do to the fact that I have nothing to lose, I am going to try something. On my property, we have tons of rock, everything from broad flat rocks to rocks the size of a truck. I am going to take the thin, broad, flat rocks that I can find and fit them together to cover about 1/3 of the main chicken pen floor. The idea is that this will make a stone floor that will cut back on the incredibly annoying mud. I will put straw over the rock. I don't know how well or how bad this will work, so I definitely won't cover too much of the chicken pen floor this way. I'm hoping that this will keep the straw cleaner and make everything more sanitary. I'll take pictures of the "stone floor" after I get it assembled and put them on here with updates on how it does.

I have had alot of experience dealing with mud. so i have to ask...why is inside the coop full if mud? Dirt needs water to make mud so I would look at how is that happening...should you slope and add drains outside the coop first...I would be leery of putting down flat rocks (seems you are too) maybe for a walkway, but it will still be damp underneath that and a good place for slimy crawly things to hang out. (And rats when it dries out) if anything I would add crushed rock and dirt to elevate the coop floor and a few feet around the outside to get above the water table if you are flat and low area. Go outside in the rain and watch where the water is coming from...you even could just keep adding straw until the bottom layer turns to dirt and add on top of that...since I can't see myself shoveling rock and if it weren't a water run off issue, that's prob what I would do. Besides, chickens like dirt. And ventilation.

 

[Achickenwrangler#1]

Once again Bee very well said. I wish I could put my thoughts together that well. I seem to come off sounding to gruff but that's not the way I mean it. Just call me old nurse Crachet.

I personally saw nothing wrong with the response ....(read first few paragraphs of thread ) and i agree the advice given immediately sounded more like an order to be done immediately....I do however take offense at line critiqueing someone else's response....this is chickens, not analysize tactful writing and psych evaul course....and a lot of BS if you think everybody has to put advise in some manner so as not to offend the asker , who likely wasn't offended to begin with, gee wiz.

 

[stonykill]

I personally saw nothing wrong with the response ....(read first few paragraphs of thread ) and i agree the advice given immediately sounded more like an order to be done immediately....I do however take offense at line critiqueing someone else's response....this is chickens, not analysize tactful writing and psych evaul course....and a lot of BS if you think everybody has to put advise in some manner so as not to offend the asker , who likely wasn't offended to begin with, gee wiz.

exactly. They are chickens. Nothing to get offended about or snobbish about. They are the birds we eat the unborn children of for breakfast, and the birds we eat for dinner. Bee's advise was sound. The other advise was perfectly fine for ANY other thread on this site, but not this one. IMHO. But opinions are like chickens. We all have too many