Not emergency rooster pic

[Clodill4rel]

Anyone able to help figure out what is wrong with my roosters feathers? Is he molting ? He’s almost 2 years old….

 

[FunClucks]

The hens are eating his feathers. If you look, the end have been bitten off. If you don't see it happening, it's probably happening at night on the roost. It's really bad. This can be a very hard behavior to fix since it's gone on for a while.

You can put pinless peepers on your hens to try and discourage/eliminate this behavior, but that's a temporary solution - a few weeks or a few months tops. You'll have to determine the root cause and fix that and hope the hens don't start up again once the pinless peepers come off. Usually root cause is not enough space, poor roost design, stress, or not enough protein in the chickens' diet. Sometimes the chicken is just a bully.

So for my questions. What are you feeding them? Food name and protein level of your commercial feed, also how many treats and what kind? Can you post a picture of your feed bag nutrition label? Do they free range or are they confined all the time? What are the dimensions or square footage of your coop and your run? Answers to these questions will help troubleshoot the root cause of the problem.

Once you fix the root cause, you will have to wait for your rooster to molt before his feathers will go back to normal. If they get eaten worse now, or again after molt, you'll know you haven't fixed the root cause of your problem.

 

[Clodill4rel]

The hens are eating his feathers. If you look, the end have been bitten off. If you don't see it happening, it's probably happening at night on the roost. It's really bad. This can be a very hard behavior to fix since it's gone on for a while.

You can put pinless peepers on your hens to try and discourage/eliminate this behavior, but that's a temporary solution - a few weeks or a few months tops. You'll have to determine the root cause and fix that and hope the hens don't start up again once the pinless peepers come off. Usually root cause is not enough space, poor roost design, stress, or not enough protein in the chickens' diet. Sometimes the chicken is just a bully.

So for my questions. What are you feeding them? Food name and protein level of your commercial feed, also how many treats and what kind? Can you post a picture of your feed bag nutrition label? Do they free range or are they confined all the time? What are the dimensions or square footage of your coop and your run? Answers to these questions will help troubleshoot the root cause of the problem.

Once you fix the root cause, you will have to wait for your rooster to molt before his feathers will go back to normal. If they get eaten worse now, or again after molt, you'll know you haven't fixed the root cause of your problem.

I have two culprits ! I actually saw them do it!. So I’m going to look at getting those painless peepers! I have four coops our largest coop is roughly a 15x15 size with 10chickens in it . Their hen house has three posts and is roughly 5x6 raised up with 4 1.5x1.5ft nesting boxes (picture below. 4 including our roo sleep on top of it every night. I feed them azure standard mash. And the scratch and peck feed along with random organic produce from our garden. The scratch’s are supplemental that mash is main feed. Most of my hens n Roos are a year n half to two years old. We also give grubs randomly …. And they free range on a half acre . I’m actually noticing others may be picking up this behavior !

 

[FunClucks]

I have two culprits ! I actually saw them do it!. So I’m going to look at getting those painless peepers! I have four coops our largest coop is roughly a 15x15 size with 10chickens in it . Their hen house has three posts and is roughly 5x6 raised up with 4 1.5x1.5ft nesting boxes (picture below. 4 including our roo sleep on top of it every night. I feed them azure standard mash. And the scratch and peck feed along with random organic produce from our garden. The scratch’s are supplemental that mash is main feed. Most of my hens n Roos are a year n half to two years old. We also give grubs randomly …. And they free range on a half acre . I’m actually noticing others may be picking up this behavior !

Ah, glad you found two culprits. There may be more. Yea, pinless peepers are the first step. Amazon was my friend with those.

So you're feeding 16% protein layer mash. I'd recommend upping the protein to 18-20% and switching to an all-flock feed if you want to keep your rooster for any length of time. Layer feed has too much calcium for roos -it can cause I think kidney failure? Some roos are affected, some aren't, and you won't know until yours dies. The damage is cumulative over time. However, if you eat your roo every two years or so, or you go through them fast due to predators, this isn't an issue.

Anything you feed the chickens or that they eat that is not their commercial chicken food that is not protein like fish, chicken, lean meat, etc. (make sure its low sodium and low fat protein) will dilute the total protein in their diet. Grubs are very high in fat, so are considered more of a treat than a protein source. So veggies, scratch, etc reduce the protein in the diet. End of it is, they're probably getting much less than 16% protein based on the diet you list. 16% is the minimum that commercial producers can give their hens and still get them to lay enough eggs to be commercially viable. There are no treats accounted for in that diet, and they never forage. Also they are processed at 2 years old, so long term health is not a concern commercially. For a backyard keeper, what this means is by feeding a higher protein feed, we allow foraging and treats, and the total protein consumed is lower than that listed on the commercial feed bag, but (hopefully) above minimums enough to keep them healthy for a long time. Personally I feed 20% Purina Flockraiser, but there are other good brands, it depends on what's available in your area. I like the nutrients in the Purina Flockraiser (lysine, methionine, etc.).

Minimum recommendations on this site are 4 sq foot per chicken in the coop and 10 sq foot in the run per chicken, and free ranging is not counted in that recommendation. When I say sq footage, that means space they can walk around in. So you'd need to substract space taken up by feeders, waterers, nest boxes, isolation cages etc. when calculating the square footage available per chicken in your coop and run. Based on what you've shared, I think your space is probably ok? Might look at moving your perches so they are all the same level and the hens can't reach between them - i.e. they all have to line up in a line. If that's how it is now (can't reach the rooster from another perch) you're probably good there. Unless you get a lot of them jumping on each other.

You might check your hens to see if they're being feather picked too, not just your rooster. My guess is yes.

Once you up the protein in your feed, then you just have to stop the behavior. This can take a while.

Extra bonus, you may get slightly larger eggs and possibly more of them if you free feed the higher protein food.

Good luck!

 

[Clodill4rel]

Ah, glad you found two culprits. There may be more. Yea, pinless peepers are the first step. Amazon was my friend with those.

So you're feeding 16% protein layer mash. I'd recommend upping the protein to 18-20% and switching to an all-flock feed if you want to keep your rooster for any length of time. Layer feed has too much calcium for roos -it can cause I think kidney failure? Some roos are affected, some aren't, and you won't know until yours dies. The damage is cumulative over time. However, if you eat your roo every two years or so, or you go through them fast due to predators, this isn't an issue.

Anything you feed the chickens or that they eat that is not their commercial chicken food that is not protein like fish, chicken, lean meat, etc. (make sure its low sodium and low fat protein) will dilute the total protein in their diet. Grubs are very high in fat, so are considered more of a treat than a protein source. So veggies, scratch, etc reduce the protein in the diet. End of it is, they're probably getting much less than 16% protein based on the diet you list. 16% is the minimum that commercial producers can give their hens and still get them to lay enough eggs to be commercially viable. There are no treats accounted for in that diet, and they never forage. Also they are processed at 2 years old, so long term health is not a concern commercially. For a backyard keeper, what this means is by feeding a higher protein feed, we allow foraging and treats, and the total protein consumed is lower than that listed on the commercial feed bag, but (hopefully) above minimums enough to keep them healthy for a long time. Personally I feed 20% Purina Flockraiser, but there are other good brands, it depends on what's available in your area. I like the nutrients in the Purina Flockraiser (lysine, methionine, etc.).

Minimum recommendations on this site are 4 sq foot per chicken in the coop and 10 sq foot in the run per chicken, and free ranging is not counted in that recommendation. When I say sq footage, that means space they can walk around in. So you'd need to substract space taken up by feeders, waterers, nest boxes, isolation cages etc. when calculating the square footage available per chicken in your coop and run. Based on what you've shared, I think your space is probably ok? Might look at moving your perches so they are all the same level and the hens can't reach between them - i.e. they all have to line up in a line. If that's how it is now (can't reach the rooster from another perch) you're probably good there. Unless you get a lot of them jumping on each other.

You might check your hens to see if they're being feather picked too, not just your rooster. My guess is yes.

Once you up the protein in your feed, then you just have to stop the behavior. This can take a while.

Extra bonus, you may get slightly larger eggs and possibly more of them if you free feed the higher protein food.

Good luck!

We love our rooster he’s the best we have ever had we totally want him to stick around . So I can’t seem to find one on azurestandard that has that high of protein. What about this one ? It has less calcium for the roo I had no idea I was hurting him with foods! . I will also check out the food you recommended ……. And I have as of now separated to two naughty girls but I might have to make a new coop for them uhgggg I am going to order those pin peepers tho right now. Too bad they are our one blue layer and one green layer! Yes a few of o it other hens not just the roo have feathers that are bad! Oh we also put rooster booster in their water from time to time…. It’s made locally vitamins and minerals I also randomly offer oyster shell…..

 

[CluckNorris4eva]

What breed of rooster is he???

 

[Clodill4rel]

What breed of rooster is he???

He’s an EE. But I also have Silkys …. Two Roos that are silky actually separate coops

 

[SourRoses]

So I can’t seem to find one on azurestandard that has that high of protein. What about this one ?

Wow, I can't believe the price! $53.78 for 40 lbs. ?!?!
Do you have any local feed stores you could check out?
Here I pay $19.99 for 50lbs. of Dumor 20% Grower, the same thing as All-Flock.

At 17% protein, that feed is not very good either. What you need is about 20% protein. When birds are eating a lot of other stuff, their total daily protein intake is lowered. That means currently they are getting less than the 16% bare minimum protein. Which is very hard on feathers and laying, and I bet others are suffering feather quality issues, even if it's not as apparent.
If you change feeds before they molt you will see the huge difference in their new feathers, and I bet you won't ever settle for less than 20% again. That's what happened with us, it's jarring to think you know how your birds look and realize they've been underserved the whole time.

 

[FunClucks]

We love our rooster he’s the best we have ever had we totally want him to stick around . So I can’t seem to find one on azurestandard that has that high of protein. What about this one ? It has less calcium for the roo I had no idea I was hurting him with foods! . I will also check out the food you recommended ……. And I have as of now separated to two naughty girls but I might have to make a new coop for them uhgggg I am going to order those pin peepers tho right now. Too bad they are our one blue layer and one green layer! Yes a few of o it other hens not just the roo have feathers that are bad! Oh we also put rooster booster in their water from time to time…. It’s made locally vitamins and minerals I also randomly offer oyster shell…..

I would try and find a higher protein food. Consider feeding meat bird food for a while if you can find it - it's often 22% protein, and won't hurt them, although the vitamin content is usually on the lower end because meat birds are not expected to live long term. Supplementing like you're doing is a good thing, but more expensive than having the vitamins already present in the food. Offering calcium rocks (oyster shell) on the side is great - only the hens will eat it. I would keep a bowl of it out all the time now that you will not be feeding laying feed - the hens will need it and should eat it regularly. The 17% feed you found does not have the layer levels of calcium, so it will be better for your rooster, but I think you may be able to do better on protein content.

Also, the methionine and lysine levels in the 17% food are quite low - check out the Purina All Flock for some good targets - Purina is also a bit low, but the highest I've found locally. Rooster booster is a good supplement. Also consider Poultry Cell, Nutri-Drench (basically, it's molasses, so you can just use blackstrap molasses) and crushing up a human B Complex vitamin (B100 or B50) and adding it to their water. Any extra B vitamins will be excreted and won't hurt them, so you really can't overdo it, but being low in B vitamins can cause curled toes and other issues. They've been really low for a long time, so I would give them B Complex for about a month at least - it takes that long to have therapeutic effect.

Are there any garden stores or feed stores in your area? You really shouldn't have to pay more than $20-30 for 40-50 lbs feed in the USA. Tractor Supply or Rural King are good examples, but there are others depending on where you live.

I think you're on the right track.

ETA: Probiotics and electrolytes can also be helpful, electrolytes when it's hot. Healthy Hen is one product that combines both, or there are individual supplements for each.

 

[FunClucks]

There have been exhaustive thread(s) discussing feed. Here is a link to Kiki's google document showing nutritional comparison for different feeds. Best ones are highlighted in green I believe. There's also a link to the thread discussion and article(s) on the top left side. If you look at her signature, that's the link to her feed sheet. Kiki and U_Stormcrow are experts in this area, and you can search by their usernames for more feed information on this site.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1upDVFXEQPK8PUIF6Sj3Bt5CUQfX1PlTEhg799sDT-qM/edit#gid=0