Colorado

[gardendufus]

By the way Wendell, I forgot to ask....On the 4th, did I hear you guys giving the Possum Lodge pledge?

 

[coloradogal]

I reapplied the tar tonight on my girls. This is the back of one of the gals but her butts a little red too. I'm not eating any of the eggs from the hens that are tar babied. I'm going to keep with the tar until the rooster is gone and the redness has subsided. I suspect once he's gone, things will settle down. If not, it'll be taking out the next offender.



I plan on putting the saddles back on but the redness is just too pronounced now. If this little gal doesn't start looking better, I'm going to separate her from the outside coop until she heels. Anyone have any other suggestions?

 

[gardendufus]

BTW, as long as I'm cleaning out my shed.........when I was still considering making an elevated coop I had decided to cover the floor in linoleum for ease of cleaning. I hit a couple of flooring stores and picked up some scrap linoleum. I've never measured it, but one of the stores had some remnants they gave to me. I estimate that it is about 3 - 3 1/2 feet wide and maybe 10' long (I'm really guessing on the length). I have a second piece, but I wouldn't even begin to guess because it's been so long since I even looked at it. I know its smaller than the first piece. If anyone wants it, it's theirs, and if you're within 15-20 miles, I'll even deliver. Just PM me.

 

[dennarahl]

Poor baby! A couple of my boys looked this bad before I figured out what was going on. They were young still and all of them were boys so I knew it wasn't damage from mating. It's hard to tell because of the shine, are there any actual breaks in the skin? It doesn't look like there are any big ones if there are. So what may be happening is that your flock is lacking protein so they're eating feathers, and the pin feathers are especially attractive.

With my boys, I did a couple of things all at once, so it's hard to tell what exactly fixed the problem. Covering the bare spot/pin feathers with a saddle, blukote so it was harder to see when uncovered, and added protein to the diet (canned cat food, meal worms or scrambled eggs). It took a month at least to get all the feathers grown in, but once they did I kept up with the protein and never had another problem before slaughter.

With the girls, I cover them with a saddle the instant I see a patch and keep them covered until I can't see pin feathers. I also give them extra protein the next few days after finding the patch. When I got geese I switched everyone over to flock raiser and the problem got quite a bit better. The girls were still a little ragged looking because of the rooster, but no patches. A couple weeks ago I switched the chickens over to layena (lower protein), and a couple of patches showed up, so I've made sure to add protein and there haven't been any new patches.

 

[wsmith]

By the way Wendell, I forgot to ask....On the 4th, did I hear you guys giving the Possum Lodge pledge?

A modified version of it......

In reenacting circles, a person who does things wrong, ie wrong styles, mixed time periods, mixed regional clothing and equipment, beards, you get the piture, are called FARBs. To act like a FARB is to be FARBY. None of us has a tme machine, so to one extent or another, no matter how good the research, we are all FARBS, some more so than others. So the pledge goes like this: I am a FARB, but I can change, if I have to, I guess......... We use it as a reminder to keep getting better, and don't be a FARB or FARBY.

 

[gardendufus]

Men and their toys

Well, I'm off to feed and water (I MIGHT look to see if there's an egg), and take the weedeater to the growth in my yard.

 

[coloradogal]

Poor baby! A couple of my boys looked this bad before I figured out what was going on. They were young still and all of them were boys so I knew it wasn't damage from mating. It's hard to tell because of the shine, are there any actual breaks in the skin? It doesn't look like there are any big ones if there are. So what may be happening is that your flock is lacking protein so they're eating feathers, and the pin feathers are especially attractive.

With my boys, I did a couple of things all at once, so it's hard to tell what exactly fixed the problem. Covering the bare spot/pin feathers with a saddle, blukote so it was harder to see when uncovered, and added protein to the diet (canned cat food, meal worms or scrambled eggs). It took a month at least to get all the feathers grown in, but once they did I kept up with the protein and never had another problem before slaughter.

With the girls, I cover them with a saddle the instant I see a patch and keep them covered until I can't see pin feathers. I also give them extra protein the next few days after finding the patch. When I got geese I switched everyone over to flock raiser and the problem got quite a bit better. The girls were still a little ragged looking because of the rooster, but no patches. A couple weeks ago I switched the chickens over to layena (lower protein), and a couple of patches showed up, so I've made sure to add protein and there haven't been any new patches.

I keep them on all flock and they also get a mixture of the layena and showbird formula. I've done the blue-kote bottom layer and put the pine tar on the top. It's only these 4 girls and the roos legs that look torn up but then 3 days ago, I noticed this little gal also lost hair on her butt. I had to do a double take and it was only noticeable when she was bent over.

There are no breaks in the skin and feathers are growing but very sparse. I've just always believed they were getting enough protein from the all flock and showbird food but I'll go after I send this and give them some dog food. All the other gals look very, very beautiful with shiny, thick feathers. Just 4 girls look bad. Thank you so much for your advice.

 

[dennarahl]

I keep them on all flock and they also get a mixture of the layena and showbird formula. I've done the blue-kote bottom layer and put the pine tar on the top. It's only these 4 girls and the roos legs that look torn up but then 3 days ago, I noticed this little gal also lost hair on her butt. I had to do a double take and it was only noticeable when she was bent over.

There are no breaks in the skin and feathers are growing but very sparse. I've just always believed they were getting enough protein from the all flock and showbird food but I'll go after I send this and give them some dog food. All the other gals look very, very beautiful with shiny, thick feathers. Just 4 girls look bad. Thank you so much for your advice.

It was the same way with mine where most looked good. There were 9 boys and only 2 of them had to wear saddles. They're probably low on the pecking order so everyone is ganging up on them.

 

[coloradogal]

It was the same way with mine where most looked good. There were 9 boys and only 2 of them had to wear saddles. They're probably low on the pecking order so everyone is ganging up on them.

I just separated my girl and she has now taken up residence in the second bathtub. She's in a kennel with the top off and she is content to just lie there and look up at me. She's so battle weary. I'll keep her in there for as long as I need to but will give her skin a break from the sun and elements. I hate removing chickens from the flock because it always upsets the balance. I had to remove my alpha hen last month because of a feather loss and suspect that doing that contributed to this mess. She's regrowing all her feathers now at my brothers place and has integrated beautifully. The roo there is my old brahma and he's a gentle giant, even with the girls. So now the two of them, with the pullets and turkeys, cluck claw to claw together all over their 5 acres and in their trees. I wish I had trees.

I'm relieved to not have to paint her tonight.

 

[mynamesjenelle]

Proud "parental" moment... my five 2 week old (well two weeks and 2 days, but who's counting?) chicks finally went up the ramp and put themselves in the coop tonight. A little coaxing from my DW to get on the ramp and an hour of up and down up and down. Finally five in the hole ... no more nightly chicken wrangling for me.   SWEET!

mo

That's great! It's so nice when they can let themselves in and out. Then you can just relax and watch them.

I've got a question for everyone. This morning our youngest pullet, maybe 13-14 weeks old, was singing a LOUD egg song! We searched all over for an egg and found nothing, but just in case we uncovered the nest boxes and filled them with duff. Does the song mean eggs? She has gotten pretty big lately, but not 'wide' in the hips like the older girls. Her face and comb are still yellow too. I expected it to be one of the other girls singing when we heard it but it was definitely her, just strutting around singing her little heart out. The others were standing around petrified because they had never heard it before

No other egg-type behaviors except this song, except pink faces on most of the girls and the light brahma doing a pseudo-squat the other day. We're out of eggs so maybe she is just waiting for us to go buy some...