- Mar 13, 2011
- 5
- 0
- 7
Hello everyone,
I've been having some picking issues within my flock. I put "Pick-No-More" Lotion with aloe, calendula, tar, etc on the picked areas, and it stopped the bleeding. However, now that the picking has stopped 5 of my chickens (Welsummer, Maran, Speckled Sussex, EE and Silver Laced Wyandotte) have bare backs. They look TERRIBLE!!! They've been bare for over 3 months now.
Is there any thing I can do to help stimulate the feathers to grow back?
Further details that may (or may not) be relevant:
-The girls get to free range for at least 2 hours a day, much more on the weekends, and pick up lots of worms, grass, seeds, etc.
-I feed them a balanced diet of layer pellets and free choice oyster shell.
-They get a handful of scratch 4 or 5 times a week and have constant access to clean, fresh water.
-They aren't stressed out at all; no chasing children, and they love my dog.
-Each hen has about 8 square feet of space in the coop.
-There only sign of continued picking is when occasionally one hen will have a feather start to grow in, it'll be gone the next day.
Another note: If looking for a way to stop pecking, the Pick-No-More lotion works great, but when they say it stains the birds they mean it. My once beautiful pure with EE now has a purple back. Poor girl...
Thank you all!
I've been having some picking issues within my flock. I put "Pick-No-More" Lotion with aloe, calendula, tar, etc on the picked areas, and it stopped the bleeding. However, now that the picking has stopped 5 of my chickens (Welsummer, Maran, Speckled Sussex, EE and Silver Laced Wyandotte) have bare backs. They look TERRIBLE!!! They've been bare for over 3 months now.
Is there any thing I can do to help stimulate the feathers to grow back?
Further details that may (or may not) be relevant:
-The girls get to free range for at least 2 hours a day, much more on the weekends, and pick up lots of worms, grass, seeds, etc.
-I feed them a balanced diet of layer pellets and free choice oyster shell.
-They get a handful of scratch 4 or 5 times a week and have constant access to clean, fresh water.
-They aren't stressed out at all; no chasing children, and they love my dog.
-Each hen has about 8 square feet of space in the coop.
-There only sign of continued picking is when occasionally one hen will have a feather start to grow in, it'll be gone the next day.
Another note: If looking for a way to stop pecking, the Pick-No-More lotion works great, but when they say it stains the birds they mean it. My once beautiful pure with EE now has a purple back. Poor girl...
Thank you all!
