keeping foot feathers nice for showing

[Wendy'sChicksRock]

My beautifully featherd feet on my bantam cochins are looking horrible.. How do you all keep them nice.?They are on shavings now.

Here is a befor pic of the feet

after just picture all the feathers broken or mostly gone

 

[Sumatra55]

Keep them in individual wire pens is about the only way to keep manure off of their feet.

 

[95yj]

I've never raised feather legged chickens but i used to show russian tumbler pigeons, which do have feather legs. It helps to use really small hardware cloth (1/4-1/8 inch) or a solid wall so the feathers can't fit through and snap off. Always keep the pens lined with really clean shavings, i'd suggest just spreading down a 1/2 inch every few days depending on the size of the pen. I also think it helps to keep them entertained, throw some scratch in the shavings so the can root around for it or hang a head of lettuce from the top of the pen so they can peck at it, this gives them something to do other than destroy their feathers. Also check that the perches aren't too close to the walls or anything like that.

 

[95yj]

I've never raised feather legged chickens but i used to show russian tumbler pigeons, which do have feather legs. It helps to use really small hardware cloth (1/4-1/8 inch) or a solid wall so the feathers can't fit through and snap off. Always keep the pens lined with really clean shavings, i'd suggest just spreading down a 1/2 inch every few days depending on the size of the pen. I also think it helps to keep them entertained, throw some scratch in the shavings so the can root around for it or hang a head of lettuce from the top of the pen so they can peck at it, this gives them something to do other than destroy their feathers. Also check that the perches aren't too close to the walls or anything like that.