PLEASE HELP ME 11/20/09...hens W/bald Butts And Feather Loss>>

[NurseNettie]

From the photos, it looks like they're in a big time moult. Like the other suggested- lots of protein!!!! They'll look better soon!

 

[Hambone]

Quote:
The tractor is 12 feet long by 6 feet wide. You can see pics of it on my page. In the boxed in area they have 2 nest boxes and a roost stick. Im not sure about the age of my hens. This will be their first winter. I have had them since they were pullets.

This is an old picture from when they were pullets.

 

[Hambone]

Quote:
What pictures? I didn't take any of them yet.

 

[chookchick]

I think everyone is looking at Pampered Poulet's photo and thinking that is your chicken!

You setup looks nice, and well protected! Plenty of room in the run for them. The roosting area could be kind of tight when they are stuck in there--do you have a cover on the run now? It would be easy to cover the rest of the run with more of that roofing material--you could put a 4 by 4 on top of one side to make a slope. Then they would get a chance to run around on bad days and not get into trouble. Are you seeing any new feathers emerging when you look at them closely? If they are molting, they will start to look porcupiney. It is not at all surprising that they are not laying now, everybody is whining about that!

Is your setup very portable? That is a pretty good size for a portable run! I would like to have one like that to throw them into for the day.

 

[KatyTheChickenLady]

I have one hen who molts really hard and walks around with a baboon butt and a baddddd attitude for two months. It really sounds like yours are just molting, they can look really bad when the feather fall out and even worse when the pins start coming back in.

 

[Jolyn]

ThePamperedPullet~ Thanks for posting the picture. That is what my girls are looking like! The wing feathers are thinning like that too.

Do they eat more during molting? My girls seem to be going through feed like crazy!!!!

 

[dacdeihl]

Quote:
Try chicken blinder first. You can get them a www.randallburkey.com Try that first.