So I have 12 Golden Wyandotte hens, and one Barred Rock Rooster. I kept noticing the Rooster losing some feathers and checked him for mites, dusted him with DE, and sent him on his way. Gals all looked fine so I cleaned out their house and put down DE in there as well with fresh shavings.
About 10 days ago I noticed the Rooster has a raw spot on his rump, I caught him and put blu koat on it. Looked better for about 2 days and then he suddenly is covered with peaked spots. I keep blu koating him, but the hens keep peaking him. Tonight I removed him from the coop.
So background, he is a pretty mild mannered rooster, and my hens are mean as can be! I watched a little black bird fly in one day before I got the whole pen covered with deer netting, and those gals ran after it to try and kill it. Couple days ago I watched a fox come up to the pen and I started running up towards the chickens thinking it was going to try and get one.... Instead I watched all 12 hens run right at the wire towards that fox and try to attack it. That fox took off like he had the grim reaper on his/her tail!
They use to be free range during the day till but they started laying and being they are not the smartest gals I started keeping the pen door closed so they will use the nesting boxes. It's a pretty good size pen at 30x60 feet, I throw in lots of veggies from the garden, they have fresh water constantly, and I feed an organic layer pellet. Also grit and calcium are free choice. I also use nutri drench for poultry about once a week in their water.
I been reading on the internet that peaking can be caused from boredom, not enough room, and the need for more protein. Well I think the pen is pretty good sized for them and like I said I throw lots of goodies in there for them to peak. Today I started adding lots of straw to give them more scratching material on the ground, their actual house/coop is a little over 120sq feet.
The one thing to keep them organic I don't know what to add for protein besides what I'm feeding. The pellets are a 16% protein product.I have grass hoppers galore right now and I catch them and throw them in and I imagine they are jumping into the pen as well.
I've also noticed what looks like the start of the hens peaking each other. I'm wondering if the stress of being new layers has started this problem? And now that it's started it seems they want to continue.
Anyone with some suggestions? I'm desperate to figure out how to stop this without having to debeak the gals.
Thanks in advance!
About 10 days ago I noticed the Rooster has a raw spot on his rump, I caught him and put blu koat on it. Looked better for about 2 days and then he suddenly is covered with peaked spots. I keep blu koating him, but the hens keep peaking him. Tonight I removed him from the coop.
So background, he is a pretty mild mannered rooster, and my hens are mean as can be! I watched a little black bird fly in one day before I got the whole pen covered with deer netting, and those gals ran after it to try and kill it. Couple days ago I watched a fox come up to the pen and I started running up towards the chickens thinking it was going to try and get one.... Instead I watched all 12 hens run right at the wire towards that fox and try to attack it. That fox took off like he had the grim reaper on his/her tail!
They use to be free range during the day till but they started laying and being they are not the smartest gals I started keeping the pen door closed so they will use the nesting boxes. It's a pretty good size pen at 30x60 feet, I throw in lots of veggies from the garden, they have fresh water constantly, and I feed an organic layer pellet. Also grit and calcium are free choice. I also use nutri drench for poultry about once a week in their water.
I been reading on the internet that peaking can be caused from boredom, not enough room, and the need for more protein. Well I think the pen is pretty good sized for them and like I said I throw lots of goodies in there for them to peak. Today I started adding lots of straw to give them more scratching material on the ground, their actual house/coop is a little over 120sq feet.
The one thing to keep them organic I don't know what to add for protein besides what I'm feeding. The pellets are a 16% protein product.I have grass hoppers galore right now and I catch them and throw them in and I imagine they are jumping into the pen as well.
I've also noticed what looks like the start of the hens peaking each other. I'm wondering if the stress of being new layers has started this problem? And now that it's started it seems they want to continue.
Anyone with some suggestions? I'm desperate to figure out how to stop this without having to debeak the gals.
Thanks in advance!
