Hen Savers - anyone else's chickens freak out over them?

[Pineywoods Peepers]

I bought some hen savers for my pullets because the roosters are wearing them out. When I put the Hen Saver on my Silkie, she wasn't happy, but she was still functioning. Same with the Delaware. I'm not sure she even realizes it's on her. I put them on a RIR and a New Hamp, and they shut down! They slept in the bottom of the coop, would only walk backwards, and then one wouldn't even come out of the coop the next day. I ended up taking the hen saver off the girl that wouldn't come out of the coop.

Anyone else have this problem when using a saddle on their chickens? Do they eventually get used to it?

 

[hipeatall]

Hmmm... my hens didn't have any problems with the saddles... I put them on them at night after they had gone in to roost for the night... maybe that helped? One of the saddles did go missing though. It was odd, happened almost a year ago and we never found it. The hen had been wearing it for weeks... and one afternoon it just disappeared... just the saddle... the hen was fine. Thankfully, I had ordered extras... and the second one stayed put

 

[chickenlady08]

Peepers

I just put some hensavers on a little over a month ago to some of my girls. Most of them tolerated them ok. Some are like noway this isn't happening and some pulled them off. I didn't have any do as yours did. They just ran around kicking and screaming. lol Well ok not really. I did this at night and they mostly settled into wearing them fine. On the couple that got them off I never tried to get them back on.

Did you put them on at night after they went to sleep?

 

[startingover]

I totally have the same problem and more. I got 5 hen savers for 5 of my hens that get their feathers torn out. I have 10 other hens that don't lose any feathers. Anyway - I got 2 on and one hen shut down completely and then ran like mad. The other chickens watched for a minute and I kept my eye on her while putting the next one on. I set the next one down and she ran, went backwards and whatever. Then the roosters starting attacking them! It was vicious. Grabbing combs and pulling, trying to spur, etc. I caught both girls and took them off. To me it wasn't worth their life.

That was 2 weeks ago. I haven't tried again since I've been busy. Maybe I should try the nightime.

 

[NeeleysAVLChicks]

I've got aprons on about half my girls and just one of them freaked out for a few hours, but they all run around now like they aren't even wearing them.

I got mine from lovemychix here on BYC. She does GREAT work, super durable, cute prints and much cheaper then other places I've looked. Plus, she's a super nice woman to work with.

 

[chickenlady08]

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Oh what an awful ordeal for you and esp for your poor hens. I would try to put them on at night. I still have the same ones with the aprons on. They haven't seemed to have any problems with other girls or the boys bothering with them either.

Good Luck and hope it works this time around.

 

[chickenlady08]

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Yep, I also got mine from lovemychix also. They are so nicely made and I love them.

 

[Pineywoods Peepers]

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Wow! Sounds like yours was much worse than mine! At least none of the other peeps tried to attack them afterwards!

I put my girls jackets on in the evening after dark, but I pulled them off the roost to do it. They were still pretty groggy, but they woke up pretty quickly when they realized "something" was on them. My hens did the whole walking backwards thing too! One of them backed completely out of the coop, and I had to go catch her and get her back in.

I will say this - on one of the hens I switched her to a "single strap" hen saver, and she seemed to tolerate that much better than the double strap that goes around their neck. But that was the last single strap I had, so I couldn't try that one the one who was less than thrilled with her apron.

Wish I'd known about lovemychix! I would have ordered them from her.