Chicks look rough

[teresaplus8]

My husband and I are new to chicken raising. We have about 45 Rhode Island Red chicks that are about (rough guess) 10 weeks old. They have been, what we assume is, molting their feathers for quite a few weeks now, and seem to be having trouble growing them back. We were told by our local farm store (who only carries starter and layer feed) that the layer feed was what they needed. They are on full feed and their water is changed daily. They are allowed outside during the day and kept inside at night. They act fine. No droopiness, they are eating, drinking, running around, no mites or lice that we can see. But they look terrible and some have lost so many feathers that they are down to raw skin. They are pecking at each other and in some instances are pecking to the point of breaking skin. We can see the stubs of the new feathers coming in but it seems to be taking a really long time. We also have 20 Rhode island reds that are 16 weeks old and they did not do this. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

Layer feed only has 16% protein and the very bad part is that it has too much calcium for chickens that are not laying. So you want to switch them over to the starter (20% protein) pronto. Ideally they would be fed starter/grower or grower (17% protein) at that age, but if starter is the only alternative, then I'd go with that. There is the school of thought that when chickens are "teenagers" if they receive too much protein it can lead to reproductive problems such as egg binding. But the extra calcium will damage kidneys.

Feathers are protein and thus if they get a better diet they will have better feather regrowth. Now I am not really convinced that is your problem entirely though. If they are pecking each other and some bullying is going on, there may be a need for additional feeders to accomodate all your chicks, since they can prevent each other from getting enough feed.

Additionally there is a type of mite that can live in the coop (red mite) and come out at night to feed on the chickens. So it is really good to spray or dust your coop (getting under the roosts and in the cracks/crevices) every so often, along with treating the chickens if you need to treat them for other kinds of mites or lice (and retreat in 7 days for mites, 14 days for lice). If you feel itchy when you handle your chicks (and feel that bugs are crawling on you that you cannot see) then definitely treat them for mites. I have to do it every 2-4 months to keep them away.

I would buy some Rooster Booster pick no more lotion at the feed store (or blu kote if they don't have that, or Rooster booster black salve) and "paint" the areas on the chicks that are raw or bare. The pick no more lotion and the black salve will taste bad to them and hopefully stop the pecking.

Pinless peepers are a last resort (put them on the bullies) so they have "blinders" on.

 

[teresaplus8]

Thanks for the great information. We will work on getting them switched to grower feed.

 

[teresaplus8]

Thank you so much for the information!!! We have changed feed and our birds are looking better already!!!!

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

Thank you so much for the information!!! We have changed feed and our birds are looking better already!!!!

Awesome! I am so glad it was just the feed.

 

[teresaplus8]

My husband and are also new to the duck scene. We were gifted two ducks by a co-worker (which we are all but positive are males) they are roughly 18 weeks old. We have also acquired two females that are over a year old. We have several questions that we hope can be answered. Right now they are kept separate at night due to inside space, but are together during the day. They other day we noticed one of the females (the one the males pick on the most) running from the males with an egg in her mouth. Unfortunately the egg had been broken and she was actually eating it. We assumed that this was to protect her egg from the males?? Is this common?? Can this be stopped?? What should we do?? We are also wondering about egg fertility. I can not find any conclusive information and this site has always given me good info. How do we know when to start watching for fertilized eggs?? How many do they lay??? How long does she stay fertile??? How long will she lay fertile eggs?? How often do they breed??? Why would the females stop laying eggs?? Sorry to bombard everyone with all these questions, but trying to learn as much as we can as quickly as we can so we don't do anything wrong. Thanks in advance for any help we can get.