Please help – months-long feather issues that I just can’t solve.

[StarviewAcres]

I would say yes, and this is your culprit...

might have to get rid of her.

Thank you for your reply, I appreciate the answers and point of view!

 

[Eggcessive]

I have used a small light in winter to provide just 12 hours of daylight with no problems.

 

[Perris]

Roosty's dust bath

what's that?

I recently learned that there is a whole ecosystem living in and on birds' skin and feathers, not merely the mites and lice that preoccupy most posts on the topic. My guess would be that something amongst the members of that micro-community has got out of balance and is provoking the behaviour you see.

Maybe worth trying a selection of different dust bath ingredients, and watch the birds' responses, for modification of their behaviour, and the dust bath constituents, going forward?

 

[StarviewAcres]

what's that?

I recently learned that there is a whole ecosystem living in and on birds' skin and feathers, not merely the mites and lice that preoccupy most posts on the topic. My guess would be that something amongst the members of that micro-community has got out of balance and is provoking the behaviour you see.

Maybe worth trying a selection of different dust bath ingredients, and watch the birds' responses, for modification of their behaviour, and the dust bath constituents, going forward?

Roosty's dust bath link: https://roostys.co/products/chicken-dust-bath?utm_source=shop_app&list_generator=shops_best_sellers

Good suggestion, I will experiment with their dust bath, it's getting low in any case.

Tell me more about the chicken skin ecosystem!!

 

[Perris]

Tell me more about the chicken skin ecosystem

See Jenni and Winkler The biology of moult in birds 2020 chapter 2.
https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/biology-of-moult-in-birds-9781472977229/ (not their book on passerines, which is a different book published in a different, earlier, year)

Roosty's dust bath link:

that website does not specify the ingredients, it just makes marketing claims about how wonderful they are. There are obvious commercial reasons for that but it means the customer is buying blind. Each to his own, but I don't use such products.

 

[Sally PB]

@StarviewAcres

I just "tagged" you. Putting the "@" symbol in front of someone's name is a tag (you MUST spell the name correctly!). This puts an alert in their alert list. That's the little bell symbol up in the header.

We often tag certain people who know a lot about the physical care of chickens. They are kind enough to share what they know, which is part of what makes BYC such a wonderful place.

And,