Nacked hens.....

[chickenlittle1980]

what would be better the black salve by rooster booster, bluekote or neosporin? I had been useing Vit e oil but I am sick of greassy chickens! 4 hens are picking on each other (skin showing) even my stupid duck is getting in on the act!

 

[Kiwibird]

What are you trying to achieve?

Stop the feathers falling out?
Stop the hens pecking at bare skin?
Treat wounds that the hens have made on bare hens by pecking?

Are the hens simply moulting, or is there another reason for the bare patches?

 

[detali]

It could be that the rooster is so aggressive in his sex act that he is de-feathering the hens in the process. I had that happen in my flock. I just made a little overcoat for the abused hen to wear that would cover her skin. The roo just grabbed the overcoat when he mounted her instead of plucking more feathers.

 

[lindajones]

I also have hens with no feathers. I took the rooster out and they are getting worse so that wasn't the problem. I only have two hens. Would they be pecking each other and if so what can I do about it. Does the bluekote, neosporine, or black salve stop the pecking besides helping heal? One of the hens have three quarter size spots completely bare.

 

[pacetruckguy]

If they are pecking at each other, go to your local feed store and get some no-peck or something like that it's kind of sticky and smells bad, they don't like it and will stop pecking. If they peck untill bloody it can get ugly. They have been known to kill each other.

 

[chickenlittle1980]

3 hens....

1 duck cause

1 rooster cause

the other one is both duck and rooster duck jumps on rooster wants in on act.....

 

[KelliV]

I've had this problem, and it's kind of a bear...

I used a 'chicken saddle" initially: http://backtobasicliving.com/blog/make-a-chicken-saddle/ from this pattern. My girls generally found a way to get the saddle off, but I hear a lot of people that use them with success.

I tried black salve (sticky, pine smelling, supposedly tastes bad), but my girls just rolled it off during their dust baths.

I removed the spur casings from my rooster, and it helped somewhat with the overzealous mating and pulling out feathers.

I have had the most success with isolation and blue kote. I isolated the one hen that had been pecked to the point of bleeding until she healed (a few days), then I applied blue kote twice a day to prevent the other birds from seeing the red and pecking further. The feathers are growing back SLOWLY on my 3 girls.

Hope that helps, I know what a pain it is!

 

[Kiwibird]

Various feed options are suggested for feather pecking including feeding dry mash which keeps them busy eating it slowly so they have less time to peck each other, and raising the protein content as they may be pecking feathers because of a nutritional deficiency.

I house my roosters separately and only let them out with the hens for part of the day, as I currently have a high rooster to hen ratio. You may like to keep the rooster and duck away from the hens for most of the day.

 

[chickenlittle1980]

So do I blue kote 2 times a day?

 

[Kiwibird]

To prevent pecking, yes, but you also look at management approaches like lower light levels, more space, less boredom/free time. Also eliminate other reasons for feather loss such as parasites. Pecking may not be the only thing happening, so it always pays to check.