Pine tar rant.....

[pozarnsk]

A little rant on pine tar. It almost cost 4 of my birds their lives......

Had some picking problems when I tried to combine 3.5 month old Ameraucanas with full grown RIR and BRs. Tried again and took the time to smear the buts and entire hind quaters of 25 birds with pine tar after hearing the recommendation here. Watched them for a couple hours that night had my wife check on them in the morning, but when I got home in the afternoon 4 birds were picked clean on the tails, into the flesh where you could see the meat. I'm amazed they are still alive it was so bad.

So my conclusion on pine tar....

1) it stinks- on your clothes, your birds, and in your coop(I can still smell it 3 weeks later)

2) it does not work....at all.

My final solution I separated my coop in 2.

 

[birdlover]

Oh, that's AWFUL and I feel your frustration!! I have no experience with pine tar but have read many posts where people say they use it and it works so I don't know what to tell you. The other thing I've read to put on wounds from picking is Blu-Kote which also has an antibiotic in it for healing. I HAVE used that on one hen who was basically was being eaten alive on one shoulder by other hens. (Not my hen - I just came to her rescue - long story). In her case, it DID work for a while but then, eventually, she had to be removed to heal. After she went back with the others, she was fine. You used good, old, plain common sense in dividing your coop. Best of luck in the future.

 

[lovemychix]

I almost went the route of pine tar and I decided not too. I'm glad. I researched it and didn't find it very safe. I have been using blukote and have great results with it. The pecking has stopped and it is easy to spray on. I have also heard bad things about blukote but everything organic I tried was a waste of money and time. Good luck!

 

[lovemychix]

My chicks are also about that age and they were getting pecked by my older hens. I would try the blukote.

 

[MissPrissy]

Your first mistake is putting the younger chicken in with the mature chickens. Unless they are the same size as the older chickens they cannot defend themselves from attacks. the attacks are normal when adding to a hens house. The pecking order has to be established it is their way of live. To do so too early and without proper introduction and waiting period this is the result.

I don't find pine tar to be the issue.

The issue is the chickens were to young to go with adult birds.

 

[pozarnsk]

I agree on the organic route. The more I get into this chicken thing the more I am realizing why biggers farmers do what they do, becuase it works. I would love to have all natural everything, but it is simply not practical.

After this incident I would love to debate someone on de-beaking birds in large facilities. I believe it would be much more humane to do that than the alternative. These birds are psychos!!!

 

[MissPrissy]

We do not 'debate' on the BYC forum.

As someone who has raised chickens for many many years, debeaking is cruel. It is a deformity that never corrects itself and you have to accomodate a chicken that can no longer eat normally nor scavange and forage properly for extra protein.

 

[ivan3]

That you actually got it on 25! makes you one tough hombre. We've had nothing but success with it as the last resort treatment (on adult chooks - turkey toms). But ours were caught early before bad behavior had escalated. We still use it on the roo's comb in very cold weather as it prevents the hens from pecking it (ours hate the taste- have watched the attempts to go for blood devolve into beak wiping on the ground and no further worrying of the roo).

 

[lovemychix]

Quote:
I agree. I saved some red stars that were going to be put down because they were getting ready to molt. They came from a production facility. They debeaked them and some of them had a hard time eating. I ended up getting rid of these girls to a good home because they didn't know how to roost and layed in the hen boxes and pooped all the time. Of course they didn't know any different. They did peck the heck out of things expecially me. They were crazy but I'm glad they got good homes. They were still young.
My chicks were not getting pecked too bad. The chicks were pecking each other more than the big hens. Mostly the roos were getting pecked. Every roo I ever had gets pecked. Poor guys.

 

[Rare Feathers Farm]

Blue Kote works the best, IMO