disaster

[henroo]

Hi everyone...i need some serious help here... my whole flock is infested with feather pickers and eaters... i have 2 roosters each of them is in a coop with 2 hens... the first roo is a feather footed one... the hens had started to pluck his foot feathers and drew blood... but that wasn't enough as the hens with him pluck 3/4 of his neck feathers and made him a naked neck roo.... that was more than enough so i seperated the roo in a non permanent coop for him to regrow his feathers..(the feathers have grown a lot and he has almost most of them now) meanwhile in my other coop, it was the same scenario... the two hens started to pluck my other roo neck and near the tail feathers... by chance this roo stops them if they are picking him so he has his neck feathers but lacks some of the feathers just above his tail.. the problem is that the whole.flock is feather eaters except my 2 roos and my 2 broodies... what do i do to stop that definitely... and also when i let them free range the broodies fight with the flock and there is chaos everywhere... all of them start to fight... i want to have a peaceful flock not one where i'm stressed out n have to be constently with them... thanks in advance for your h

 

[pound4pound]

feather eaters lack methionine which is causing them to pluck and eat feathers. those feather eaters and pluckers must be isolated and provided with vitamins including methionine in feed for 2 weeks. reintegrate the birds and continue providing methionine for 4 weeks.

you need to review and check your supplements for your birds. make sure the supplements you mix in your feed has methionine besides the usual vitamins posted. mix it in your feed for 4 weeks.

electrolytes for 4 weeks and alternate with clean water.

when thingss back to normal. mix the methionine and vitamins 3x a week.

 

[henroo]

Thanks a lot for your help... i usually gives them a mixture of different food.. i give them rice with layer feed along with cracked corn chick feed as they have protein and another feed that my neighbour gave me... i live in the city... space is very limited... i already have 2 coop for the flock.. 2 broody pen for my broodies... 1 non permanent coop made from scraps materials for my juvenile chicks that i had hatched in my homemade incubator... and a seperate little coop for injured bird.... all are booked...one of my roo is in the chicken hospital... so i have nowhere else to keep them... although i can have as many chicken as i want,space is limited...

 

[henroo]

where can i buy the methionine...?? The country i live is developed in everything except chickens.... here we have only egglaying and meat chicken... we have only about 7 to 10 breeds of chickens...in my flock i dont have any pure breeds... all are mixes... besides the only ornamental breeds can be found in pet shops... so you can guess that things for chicken dont exist here... thats why i am asking if the methionine and all that stuff like vitamins etc can b found in drugstores...

 

[EmeraldSkye]

Egg whites are a good source of methionine. Plus supplements that you give chickens during molting have methionine. Check out the label. Also ice given my chickens "FeatherGlow Eggfood" for it as well. It's called Eggfood because it's made of dried eggs plus it has other good stuff. If a pet supply store (try a locally owned one) can't carry it or order it for you then you can likely find it online. All of these ideas are decent sources of methionine.

 

[henroo]

THanks so much...hope that this will work or else i will have to get rid of this flock and start a new one... any other ideas are appreciated...

 

[EmeraldSkye]

You can give them scrambled or hard boiled eggs. Plus black oil sunflower seeds are a good source of methionine. You can toss some for treats.

 

[EmeraldSkye]

I also sprayed Bitter Yuck on the hen that was losing feathers to a feather eater, sprayed her at the picked area which made her taste nasty. But don't blanket the birds with it since they also get a mouthful when they preen theirselves. Between increasing the protein (methionine), the Bitter Yuck, and giving them more space my problem stopped. I no longer supplement with the feather molting supplement but I give them a feed that is higher in protein and still toss them the sunflower seeds. Sometimes I give them the Eggfood because they love it and it's easy to mix in their crushed eggshells for a calcium boost.

 

[henroo]

thanks again for your help... will try all of them... all these problems weren't enough... yesterday a dog attack my chickens at night... i was so asleep that i didn't hear a thing... thankfully my neighbours heard all the screaming and all and drove the dog away... none of my chickens were hurt...

 

[Folly's place]

It's difficult to fed lots of different things and hope the total diet is balanced; consider a game bird layer or complete feed in addition to layer, or flock raiser with free choice oyster shell. How crowded are your birds? Space plus environmental enrichment to decrease boredom, rather than close confinement. Genetics? Some birds are just more likely to be difficult than others, both by breed type, and as individuals. Culling the bad actors, rather than breeding them on, makes a lot of sense. mary