I need advise on saddles

[ballfamilyfarm]

I need some advise from someone who is experienced with chicken saddles.
I've got 24 hens (22 barred rock, 2 RIR) and two BR roos. About 13 of my BR hens need saddles. I made one based off of the "hen saver" http://www.hensaver.com/ with the cross-over straps. It's 6-3/4" wide. I wanted to try it on before I made a lot of them. She was not into it AT ALL. I put her in it and it seemed like a good fit but she flipped, flopped and ran around backward till the back was flipped up near her head. She started jumping around again and big daddy roo saw it as something attacking her so he tried to attack it - which meant he was attacking her!!! I stepped in to stop him and he saw it as me attacking her so he was violently defending her from me. We all survived and after they had been in the dark 45 minutes later she was still fighting it so I took it off.

What went wrong? Any ideas? Do you think she was just a particularly stubborn one? I was wondering if the straps may have been too loose or too tight or if the cross over was freaking her out.
With cold weather here I really need to get the girls in some warm clothes but I don't want any of them getting killed over it. Any advise would be appreciated.

 

[GoldenSparrow]

my hen took 24 hours to get use to it. No joke.

I had to watch her, because she did not go into the coop at night with it on.
however after the 24 hours she was normal. she has it on now and is compleaty fine.

 

[ballfamilyfarm]

Thanks for the reply. I'm making another with straps that don't cross over. I'll try that one tomorrow and see how they do with that.

 

[seminolewind]

Yea, I'm afraid of the cross over ones. The ones with the snaps work fine for me. Or duct tape. That seems to do a great job

 

[ballfamilyfarm]

Here goes saddle number two.

After taking the picture I realized I sized one of the straps wrong so that has been corrected, but I didn't retake the picture.
I will post how it goes later today.

 

[seminolewind]

Those work. I've had them stay one for months!

 

[branston]

I buy saddles like your picture # 2 and don't have any problems. They don't like them at first but within 15 minutes they are doing just fine. I keep them on until the feathers grow back (advice from someone on her). I buy them from Louise's Country Closet and I buy the XL for my barred rocks

 

[CherylR]

I had tried everything I could think of to get my BR hen's feathers to grow back. Her skin got so red and irritated looking and i felt so bad for her. Finally I got one of the Hen Saver saddles (straps did not cross) with the fuzzy liner for extra warmth and it really worked. It didn't take long for my hen to get used to it and she wore it without any problem for about 4 weeks or so til her feathers grew back. They don't cost a lot and really work. I'm so glad I tried it! Hope this helps...