Newbie Question?????

[luvchicks8]

Not sure if I posted this in the right place at the sake of sounding like the newbie that I am I have to ask. today i camae home from dropping my son of at school and I found about 15 feathers in a clump my heart sack and I ran outback to check on my 4 birds that were out 3 hens and a roo. Well they were all fine??? Even the hen who feathers I found no wounds nothing. Then I got to wondering my roo is 16 weeks now and could he possably be trying to mate now? And when they mate do they loose feathers like that??

Thanks for any input just be nice to me please I am a real newbie???

 

[The Chicken People]

Yep Yep...My Roo is 15 weeks and we seperated him from the girls for jumping on them! My Hubby said if hes still here on Saturday hes gonna eat him! I want to try to give him away!

 

[The Chicken Lady]

Does it look like your ladies are missing any feathers? If he was trying to mate them, they would be missing them from their backs and possibly the backs of their necks near their heads.

My first thought was maybe that you saw a clump of feathers belonging to a wild bird that was killed by a predator, but I can't tell from your post.

I hope we can help you figure things out.

 

[luvchicks8]

These were all my americana Maggie's tail feathers the shorter fluffier ones at her bottom. Sorry IDK actual terms for them. This hen is very distictive in coloring.

 

[Bizzybirdy]

I had a White Rock hen that was sitting outside and I found a clump of her feathers there. She was attacked by a racoon

...and managed to get away sans all her tail and the down feathers on her butt. One of the luckiest hens! I clipped her wing feathers and made sure she was in the run/coop from there on in.

Watch out. Whatever did that will be back. I doubt it was your rooster.

 

[luvchicks8]

I put them back into the run thanks for advise that was what I was afraid of.

 

[The Chicken Lady]

Yeah, it sounds like free-ranging might not be the best option at this point. She may have had a lucky escape.

What do you have around your run in terms of wire?

 

[luvchicks8]

They love being out too my dh has a deer cam I'm thinking of setting up next to my coop to watch on my computer then I'll know for sure.

 

[citrusdreams]

When my neighbor's dogs last visited, they took a chunk of feathers off one of my roosters. His whole tail was gone and part of the feathers on his butt. They were in a couple piles in the yard. Thankfully he got away and is growing them back nicely.

But yeah, until you have that problem under control, I'd coop them and set out some traps for a while.

I hope you find your predator.