Just picked up almost 50 hens... A little rough

[hcppam]

Quote:
Good advice. Grower would be good, too, or even a bag of game bird feed for a kick start. And the leftovers were a great idea, particularly any meat or bones with a little protein on them.

Great advise and bravo for the rescue.

 

[porkchop48]

Pecking each other... Interesting.

I do plan to think the herd a bit. 53 is way more than I wanted.

How should I pick which ones to butcher? and when should I do it?

 

[saddina]

Don't butcher anything untill they heal up some, who looks poor now may improve with good feed (and the meat quality on a stressed bird is poor).

- what is your goal? eggs, self-suffiency, eggs and meat, other? This comes first.
-Figure out a target number of animals to achieve said goal
- figure out the roo to hen ratio to achieve said goals
- reduce current number of animals to meeat goals
- move forward

 

[porkchop48]

I did plan on letting them all heal up first.

My main goal is eggs and meat. I would like to have eggs and then a couple times a year raise up some to buter for meat.

Self suffiency would be nice... but I won't push it.

I would like to keep the 2 roos

 

[porkchop48]

Forgot one thing....

How long should I expect it to take to get them looking semi decent feather wise?

I just feel bad that they look so scraggly ( well most of them anyways)

 

[Judy]

You may not see really good feathering til after the next molt. Patience!

 

[Mac in Wisco]

Quote:
They probably won't come back until after they molt. Some of it looks to be picking, some of it is from the roosters treading out feathers.

Otherwise, they look rather healthy.

 

[Medicine Man]

I've dealt with a flock of feather-pickers last year. They were on "pasture" (rarely moved though), but fed a horribly-concocted homemade recipe which was obviously insufficient. The best way to describe is to say that their owner is a very "blissful" person.

Anyway, here's a brief pictorial of how it went...

Before:





2 weeks into the new diet:






5 weeks on the new diet:





I wish I had leg-banded them and taken better photos, but I didn't. The feathers which have been plucked should regrow immediately, but any feathers which are simply frayed or broken will have to wait until the next molt.

Here' what I would do for your chickens: Either use UltraKibble according to the manufacturer's recommendations or add fish meal, 5% by weight, to whatever you're feeding. Perhaps some shredded beet pulp as well, .25% by weight. There are easier options such as those already presented, and there are more drastic steps you could take, such as replacing soy as a main source of protein in their diet. Whatever's clever, I don't want to start a soy war here. Good luck!

 

[Medicine Man]

Also, this herd of chickens began molting during the time this little feed trial was done, so surely that helped their appearance, but the big key is that they finally had begun allowing each others' feathers the grow, whereas in the years past, they never ever looked good, regardless of a fresh molt, because the new feathers were constantly eaten.

I had to post this in a new post rather than edit the previous because that was my 666th post!

 

[saddina]

Quote:
Ok that's similar to how we do it as well. You may want to consder hen saddles (basically a backwards apron for a chicken) for the ones that have large bare patches. They're not terriably hard to sew, you can even hand stitch them from leftover elastic and fabric. For 2 roos, perhaps 2 dozen hens, leaving you with 26 total chickens, or when you're ready to collect for hatching, section off say 6 hens with the roo for a month, collect that pen for hatching, and then back into the main group. Don't name anyone till you hae decided diner from keepers.