Poor chicken with plucked feathers

[tequilajade]

A neighbor just gave me his 5 chickens this morning. 4 hens and a rooster. One of the hens is real badly plucked.

He said they are proven layers, and that she is a red star. I put save-a-chick in the water, and pick-no-more cover up lotion on her, is there anything else I should be doing? These birds appeared pretty badly neglected. They seem much happier already, and they have all been plucked to an extent, but she is definitely the worst off.

 

[Chickensfan]

your neighbors have plucked them? or the chickens pecked eachother?

 

[tequilajade]

I'm assuming the chickens have done it to each other, I certainly hope a human wouldn't be that cruel to them. Although they seemed pretty neglected.. soo.. I'm going to say I'm hoping the chickens did it to each other

 

[Chickensfan]

try bluecoat. that makes it so the other chickens will not see blood, therefore, they will not peck. it will give it a chance to heal whether the humans did it or they did it to themselves. (but please, read instructions on the container first.) my little rooster was getting pecked on pretty badly, so i am treating him with bluecoat. it seems to be working.



that was before.
here is what he looks like normally...













you see, the bluecoat tastes bad to the chickens, so they stop pecking. but, it will temporarily make the chickens skin purple.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

A neighbor just gave me his 5 chickens this morning. 4 hens and a rooster. One of the hens is real badly plucked.

He said they are proven layers, and that she is a red star. I put save-a-chick in the water, and pick-no-more cover up lotion on her, is there anything else I should be doing? These birds appeared pretty badly neglected. They seem much happier already, and they have all been plucked to an extent, but she is definitely the worst off.

Since there is a rooster involved it could be from treading (mating) a rooster can wear the feathers off the back. Could be feather picking as well, but I see pin feathers coming in, so another possibility is they are molting - or a combination of all 3.

You may want to up their protein intake either by a commercial all flock/flock raiser feed, feather fixer formula or give them egg, tuna, mackerel or meat.
Poultry vitamins won't hurt so that is fine.
Offer oyster shell free choice for extra calcium and have a source of grit available as well.

You can use the pick no more or apply a little blue kote to hide the redness. Chicken saddles/hen aprons may help protect their backs while the feathers come in. If you see that it may be caused by treading, you may want to at least separate the rooster until the feathers come in, then put on aprons to protect them in the future.

Are these the only birds you have, if not do you have them separate from your flock (quarantined) so you can observed them to ensure they have no illnesses/parasites that can be communicated to your existing flock?

 

[AustralorpsAU]

Since there is a rooster involved it could be from treading (mating) a rooster can wear the feathers off the back. Could be feather picking as well, but I see pin feathers coming in, so another possibility is they are molting - or a combination of all 3.

You may want to up their protein intake either by a commercial all flock/flock raiser feed, feather fixer formula or give them egg, tuna, mackerel or meat.
Poultry vitamins won't hurt so that is fine.
Offer oyster shell free choice for extra calcium and have a source of grit available as well.

You can use the pick no more or apply a little blue kote to hide the redness. Chicken saddles/hen aprons may help protect their backs while the feathers come in. If you see that it may be caused by treading, you may want to at least separate the rooster until the feathers come in, then put on aprons to protect them in the future.

Are these the only birds you have, if not do you have them separate from your flock (quarantined) so you can observed them to ensure they have no illnesses/parasites that can be communicated to your existing flock?

I very much agree

 

[tequilajade]

They are in the same coop. But it has has a plywood divider to seperated the two sides. We built it in case we needed to segregate hens from chicks, roosters from hens, chickens from ducks, etc. Do they need to be segregated farther than that? We had 5 chickens to start with before these 5.

The pick no more turned turned her purple, but the directions aren't the most clear how often to use it. (Note to self, wear gloves, my fingers are purple now too. We have flock raiser our original 5 are getting (still very young, hatched this spring) so that's what they got as well. I put a container of oyster shell in with them, and I'd intended to cycle these 5, and my original 5 with yard time/tractor time. The rooster is HUGE. And is also missing significant feathers. But his are mostly on his wings.

I tried to upload more photos, but my mobile data connection isn't strong enough :/

 

[Wyorp Rock]

They are in the same coop. But it has has a plywood divider to seperated the two sides. We built it in case we needed to segregate hens from chicks, roosters from hens, chickens from ducks, etc. Do they need to be segregated farther than that? We had 5 chickens to start with before these 5.

The pick no more turned turned her purple, but the directions aren't the most clear how often to use it. (Note to self, wear gloves, my fingers are purple now too. We have flock raiser our original 5 are getting (still very young, hatched this spring) so that's what they got as well. I put a container of oyster shell in with them, and I'd intended to cycle these 5, and my original 5 with yard time/tractor time. The rooster is HUGE. And is also missing significant feathers. But his are mostly on his wings.

I tried to upload more photos, but my mobile data connection isn't strong enough

Ideally when you get any new birds to your property you want to house them completely away from your existing flock for about 4wks. This will give you time to make sure they don't have any parasites/worms or an illness that you missed. Since they are in the same coop even though divided by plywood, anything they have or could possibly pick up from your flock would probably be communicated. It's ok, just keep an eye out for coughing, sneezing, runny eyes/nose, lethargy, etc. Just a thought, since they are in the same coop and everyone will be exposed to the same air, dust, dander, etc., now anyway, think about changing your barrier to chicken wire. This lets everyone see each other and lets them get used to one another without a lot of drama. Once the new hens and rooster get some feather growth and not as much exposed skin and your chicks are ready to be with the "big girls", hopefully integration will be easier. There are a lot of articles here on BYC dealing with integration, so you may want take a look at those.

The pick no more, you can reapply whenever you start to see signs of redness if they are still picking at each other. I've been there with Blu Kote - turns everything blue

gloves, an old shirt, etc. now if I use something like that - I think most of us found out the hard way. (Just for kicks here's a post of some who found at too

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/137269/a-warning-about-blue-kote) .

Flock raiser will be fine. I feed mine Purina Flock Raiser with oyster shell free choice, I prefer the extra protein and my girls lay nice eggs, so I would continue with that. Most people that have mixed flocks use something like it, makes it easy to feed all age groups.

It sounds like they may have been a little overcrowded? I'm still leaning toward molting - for the hen you posted a picture of - she has a lot of new feathers coming in - if the feather loss was from treading only she would be bare backed until it was time to molt. All those pin feathers coming in makes them a little grumpy, so give them a little time, they may be stressed a little being in a new home and molting.

You're doing good!



I would love to see them so if you get a chance to post your photos that would be great.

 

[tequilajade]

This is one of my chicks, very hand tame.

Another one of my babies

The rooster and his hens

The purple hen...