I've read through a lot of posts over the past months to try and deal with our flock management. We have a silver cuckoo marans rooster who is about 14 months old. He is with the main flock where there are four hens of his same age, and another five who are 9 months old, and four who are just 3 months. It started with the original group showing signs of over-mating, losing feathers on their backs. During the winter just one hen kept laying and she was the worst. Since spring the next younger group have been getting the same, and the original group are all in bad shape for feather loss on their backs as well as their shoulders.
We used saddles in early spring for two months. It helped with slight feather regrowth, but they weren't able to dust bathe properly. We took them off after two months (how long do people normally use them?) It got hot, and we ended up with a flock infestation of poultry lice shortly after that, worst with the broody hen who had adopted two chicks, and one chick was badly infested. We treated the lice with prymethrin spray, and it seems under control now. Feather loss however is worse than ever. Hens all seemed more comfortable immediately after treatment, and continue to be lice free on inspection.
There have been additions to the flock of course, and we also sold off five of the chicks we hatched in the spring. Our initial group had a second rooster the same age as the flock rooster. They went from best friends to mortal enemies, and we found a new home for the snowy easter egger rooster. In retrospect I wish I could go back and switch! We worry the marans roo is too heavy, and that this exacerbates the problem with over mating. He isn't mean to the hens, and he is a great flock guard always on the look out for eagles and ground predators, so he's keeping everyone safe in one way, but he's impacting their heath by mating far too frequently.
When we first removed the aprons, one of the hens ran around feather picking and eating on the others as well. Ugh. We think it was just the novelty of it, and I haven't seen the behavior since, but it was a huge bummer. I've upped protein snacks for the flock, and there is also a lot of chick starter freely available since we have multi age groups, as well as their layer food and an extra feeder of grit and oyster shell.
Do I need to replace this rooster? Is there something else we can do?
We used saddles in early spring for two months. It helped with slight feather regrowth, but they weren't able to dust bathe properly. We took them off after two months (how long do people normally use them?) It got hot, and we ended up with a flock infestation of poultry lice shortly after that, worst with the broody hen who had adopted two chicks, and one chick was badly infested. We treated the lice with prymethrin spray, and it seems under control now. Feather loss however is worse than ever. Hens all seemed more comfortable immediately after treatment, and continue to be lice free on inspection.
There have been additions to the flock of course, and we also sold off five of the chicks we hatched in the spring. Our initial group had a second rooster the same age as the flock rooster. They went from best friends to mortal enemies, and we found a new home for the snowy easter egger rooster. In retrospect I wish I could go back and switch! We worry the marans roo is too heavy, and that this exacerbates the problem with over mating. He isn't mean to the hens, and he is a great flock guard always on the look out for eagles and ground predators, so he's keeping everyone safe in one way, but he's impacting their heath by mating far too frequently.
When we first removed the aprons, one of the hens ran around feather picking and eating on the others as well. Ugh. We think it was just the novelty of it, and I haven't seen the behavior since, but it was a huge bummer. I've upped protein snacks for the flock, and there is also a lot of chick starter freely available since we have multi age groups, as well as their layer food and an extra feeder of grit and oyster shell.
Do I need to replace this rooster? Is there something else we can do?
