Cx loosing feathers?

[MinnerBuckwheat]

I have never raised these before, so this is all new to me! A couple of my birds lay down a lot, which I know is normal for them, but they seem to be losing feathers on their backs. They are a month old and twice the size of my laying hens that are a month older than them. They are all in together, and no one else is having issues with feathers. Is there something wrong with them??

 

[KatyTheChickenLady]

they are not loosing feathers, they are just atking a lonnnnnnngggg time to grow in - which is very normal.

 

[MinnerBuckwheat]

That makes me feel better! I was wondering if their bodies were maybe growing too fast for their feathers to keep up!

 

[bigredfeather]

Could it be your older DP chicks are picking on the fat kids? If they are a month old, they should be fully feathered. The fact that their backs are bare doesn't seem right to me. Do you still have a heat lamp on them?

 

[Ridgerunner]

Are these broiler chicks, like Cornish crosses? It is normal for them to grow so fast their feathers cannot keep up.

 

[Bossroo]

The older chicks are plucking the younger chicks feathers off their backs. Normal behavior in chickendom to show dominance and soon you will start to see bloody backs and eventually canibalism. When you use a heat lamp, use a red lamp as chicks then can't destinguish the red color and blood as they are naturally programmed to peck at blood. Your best bet now is to seperate them.

 

[MinnerBuckwheat]

These are cornish rocks, and the chicks that are 2 months old are never aggressive to them that I have noticed.

 

[stormylady]

Have you seen alot of there feathers laying around? If ya are I would say picking going on if not I might just be them out growing there feathers, I don't know anything about this breed yet as this is my first time with them but it makes sense to me.

 

[MinnerBuckwheat]

Good point, I have never once seen a feather laying around, so it must just be they aren't growing in as fast as they are growing. I think they are growing faster than they should even because I seen on here that they should have their food taken away at night, and I leave it in there all the time. OOPS!!

 

[stormylady]

Sure hope that is the case, I think that the majority of the posters on this post is correct saying that there feathers are just slow coming in and the chicks are getting so big that it is stretching there skin and seperating what feathers they do have making them look even more sparse. I did read on one of the posts also, that if they look like there growing too fast to back off with the food and they'll slow down some and be more healthy for ya. I think when my chicks are two weeks or so I will slow down on the feed but more than likely they'll out grow there feathers too. LOL All chickies go through a Geeky stage they just go through it faster and harder I think from what I have read. Hope all goes well for ya!! Good luck!