Consolidated Kansas

[chicken danz]

@chicklover I have 4 foot goat fence along my entire front before the field and the dogs and birds have never attempted to get out of it. It needs to be stretched well but it's a lot easier to stretch than field fence.

 

[Trish44]

I found an excellent resource about cleaning & disinfecting of poultry farms, I think it might have some information we all could use even for small farms. http://www.fao.org/docrep/014/al876e/al87600.pdf

Hopefully none of us will have to deal with any of those diseases but we still need to do good cleaning & disinfecting of our coops at least once a year.

 

[chicklover56]

Ok, thank you! @chicken danz @Trish44

 

[lizzyGSR]

Ugh. One more sick chicken. Plus, I discovered a few that have fluffy looking feathers (almost like they're missing hte top layer and instead i'm seeing the fluffy "under" feathers). I'm not sure if that is from my rooster or if I've got something like mites going on. @chicken danz - I sent you some pictures. Hopefully you can help identify the problem and figure out what I need to do.

 

[chicken danz]

Ugh. One more sick chicken. Plus, I discovered a few that have fluffy looking feathers (almost like they're missing hte top layer and instead i'm seeing the fluffy "under" feathers). I'm not sure if that is from my rooster or if I've got something like mites going on. @chicken danz - I sent you some pictures. Hopefully you can help identify the problem and figure out what I need to do.

Sounds like rooster wear to me. That's how that happens. If it's mostly behind the wings that's it for sure. he can also tear up the back of their heads.

 

[lizzyGSR]

Be

Sounds like rooster wear to me. That's how that happens. If it's mostly behind the wings that's it for sure. he can also tear up the back of their heads.

Behind the wings - yep! The poor girl that's got it the worst has some bare skin showing. She is also missing a bunch of feathers on her back. Is there anything I can do for them? I've got one rooster and twelve girls so ratios shouldn't be an issue

 

[Trish44]

You can buy chicken saddles on Ebay to help with the wear.

 

[sharol]

I have several in varying sizes from HenSaver. They are wonderful. They are sturdy material that will lift up off of the hen's back to let her dust bathe. I had two Breda hens that were seriously defeathered by the rooster. I put the saddles on them (the kind with the wing protection worked the best for them. It was a struggle, and it took a few hours for them to adapt, but when I took them off several months later, their new feathers were pristine. I did check them regularly, though.

The girls actually seemed to appreciate them after they got used to them. If you don't know what size to buy, the sellers are also the manufacturers so they will help you decide. I have Little ones for the Araucanas and a couple large ones for the English Orpingtons.

I highly recommend these. I've seen others, and these are MUCH better than others I have observed. They wash beautifully, and when my dog got hold of one and chewed up the elastic, it was easy to fix.

No association with HenSaver except as a VERY satisfied customer.

 

[chicken danz]

I've purchased several chicken saddles as well off ebay. A normal sized saddle won't fit most of my hens. So I buy the largest I can get. Lizzy, you can sew so I would just order one and make however many you need. There are patterns for them for free on line but it's much easier to buy a couple and copy than to make the right size from a pattern.
I got all the chickens in the building dipped and wormed today and moved a bunch of roosters around outside. I am exhausted. I still have to do most of the outside birds but it will have to wait a few days. Too many other things on the agenda.

 

[Trish44]

I have used saddles at times for my hens as well but haven't for quite awhile. It sounds like those sharol got were nice ones but it depends on how many you need. Usually you can get them pretty inexpensively off of eBay.

I started cleaning out my main coop yesterday & didn't get done so I have to get back on it today & get finished before the rain gets here, again. I about did myself in doing that yesterday & then had to do feeding after that so I was exhausted last night. I have two people coming to pick up chicks today too in the middle of everything else, but I need some to go. My brooders are really full right now with hatching every few days. I have ducklings & goslings due to hatch today.