Hen-pecked Hens

[jessicag14]

Hello,

Yesterday I "rescued" 15 hens. They are barred rock, leghorns, and RIR. They're only a year old. They appear to have been in too small of a coop all winter because the majority of them have had lots of feathers picked off of their backs and butts. They are also missing feathers on their bellies where it looks like they were laying in "yuck". They look so sad and pathetic. I haven't dealt with anything on this scale before. Does anyone have any tips on improving/speeding up feather growth? Anything extra I can give them? I already sprayed them with Blukote.

Thanks!

 

[Johnn]

If I was you I would make sure they have no lice. I would worm them, give them a higher protein feed such as Growers pellets (you need to give them some oyster shells as a supply of calcium though as growers pellets lacks calcium) and start putting a tonic in their water such as ACV. Sounds like they were in a horrible condition, hope you get them back to good health!

 

[casportpony]

If I was you I would make sure they have no lice. I would worm them, give them a higher protein feed such as Growers pellets (you need to give them some oyster shells as a supply of calcium though as growers pellets lacks calcium) and start putting a tonic in their water such as ACV. Sounds like they were in a horrible condition, hope you get them back to good health!

X2 - Dust with poultry dust, even if you can't see bugs. If they were mine, I'd also worm them with Safeguard/Panacur, liquid or paste (fenbendaloze 10%).

 

[casportpony]

And

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Did you have chickens already? Hopefully you haven't put them in with your birds.
Keep them clean, give them places to dust bathe (probably tough in Wisconsin now).
Feathers are over 90% protein so you should up that now. Perhaps switching to a grower feed or mixing some into the layer feed.
Are they laying?
Black oil sunflower seed is high in protein, stay away from corn and other grains.
Some canned tuna or plain yogurt would be good and the yogurt can put some probiotics in them.
Do you know what they were being fed? Some people feed way too much grain and in an effort to supplement the protein the birds start eating feathers.

That is for starters. Just observe them closely for other issues.

 

[Johnn]

Also if they are laying then you should use Marriges layers pellets with Flubenvet or just Flubenvet mixed in with the normal food to worms them, then you can still eat the eggs with no withdrawl. I use it and it's really good. Good Luck!

 

[jessicag14]

No, I didn't put them in with my birds. We raise rabbits and you never put new rabbits in with the herd right away, so I figured it was the same with chickens. I was also worried that mine would pick on them more. I just got them yesterday, so they haven't laid anything yet. Going out today to get some more chick feed (I have some hatching this week anyways). They were being fed the same Farm n Fleet food that I feed. I just don't think they were being fed enough of it. I have been giving them oyster shell and scratch grains, the poor things are just figuring out how to scratch around on the ground.

 

[casportpony]

You might want to get some turkey or gamebird grower, it's much higher in protein than chick starter.

 

[casportpony]

FYI, when/if you decide to buy wormer, remember that Wazine kills only roundworms. Wormers like Safeguard, Panacur and Valbazen are in the cattle, goat and horse section.

 

[Johnn]

Also make sure the feed you get is un-medicated!