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!
We don't have pickers but our roos are a little too serious about their rooster duties, so all 4 of my black australorp girls and a couple of my eggers are missing lots of back feathers. Chicken saddles don't help ... they don't stay on. So ... I am watching this with interest, hoping to learn something that will help my girls too.
Quote:It sounds like you're doing everything properly. Their feathers will definitely grow back after a molt. To encourage feather growth, you can increase protein intake. You can buy gamebird feed which has about 22% protein in it. This should put an end to the picking as well.
