Hen plucking breast feathers

mrshafer5

Songster
Mar 10, 2017
107
122
121
West Salem, OH
My hen isn't laying where I can find them every time i walk up to her she spreads her wings and beds down and her craps are big and round. Now today she is plucking all her breast feathers and i just got my new baby chicks today. What Should i do just keep them seperate?
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Sounds like she is setting somewhere from the description. Never put chicks with adult birds. Birds should be kept with their own size birds until they are mature.
 
Sounds like she is going broody. I don’t know if you have to wait until she’s been sitting on the eggs for 21 days before putting day old chicks under her or if you can put them under her sooner :confused:
 
Why are your hen's feathers all wet, and what is that all over them? It looks like it may be egg yolk??? More detective work in order. As for integrating new chicks into a flock, many of us are finding that it's far easier to do so when the pullets are younger, at least before they get their cluck. @azygous is the queen of early integration. I believe she starts as early as 3 weeks, using the MHP brooding system and a panic room in her coop. She has an article or thread detailing the "how to".
 
Is she stressed? Don't they pluck due to stress?
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Why are your hen's feathers all wet, and what is that all over them? It looks like it may be egg yolk??? More detective work in order. As for integrating new chicks into a flock, many of us are finding that it's far easier to do so when the pullets are younger, at least before they get their cluck. @azygous is the queen of early integration. I believe she starts as early as 3 weeks, using the MHP brooding system and a panic room in her coop. She has an article or thread detailing the "how to".
I integrate mine at about 4 weeks. They do fine. A little bickering, but that is just them training the newbes.

That hen does not look at all broody. She doesn't have the broody stance of fluff going on.
Agreed
 
What do your nests look like? Do you pick up eggs every day, or are the egg allowed to accumulate for a week or more? From the looks of that hen, and no, she isn't broody, she's likely been sleeping in a nest full of broken eggs. I'm a regular Chicken-lock Holmes, and I spy me some evidence on those chest and belly feathers!

Egg on feathers begs to be eaten, and of course some feathers will be casualties when chickens and the wearer of the yolk are all attempting to get rid of the evidence, I mean, clean up the mess.

There are lots of excellent reasons to brood your new chicks in the coop alongside the adult flock, but you need to make a secure pen so the chicks and adults don't mess with each other while the chicks are in their first couple weeks. The mesh should be narrow enough that tiny chick heads don't poke through and get scalped by curious adult beaks.

After the first two weeks, you can open chick-size openings (more than just one!) to let the chicks explore the coop. Keep their food and water inside the safe space so the adults don't eat it up from the chicks.
 

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