Amiloo928
Songster
Hello all!
I have a 14 month old black sexlink that went broody about 7 weeks ago. After two weeks of taking her eggs, we took pity on her and bought some fertilized eggs from a hatchery (we have no roo). Fast forward to today, and I have mama hen with two beautiful baby EEs that are about two weeks old!!
Four of her eight eggs developed into chicks, two of the chicks didn’t make it (one had its shell broken early by one of the other girls in the flock, one never hatched at all). After day 21, she was still extremely protective of her remaining eggs, even though there was no outward sign of life. We let her keep them a few extra days, just in case. On the 27th day I finally removed all the unhatched eggs from Mama and she seemed to do fine transitioning to caring for her babies. She is extremely attentive and protective of them, and they follow her everywhere.
Ever since I took Thelma’s eggs away though, she has been plucking out her own feathers. She had originally plucked out her chest feathers when she was sitting on her eggs, but now she is plucking feathers from all over; her sides, back, wings, and butt. There are piles of feathers scattered around the small coop we have within our larger chicken pen where Thelma and babies are located.
A visual of the feathers (And Thelma with her babies!):
And for reference, below is the setup we have going.
The small coop currently housing the mama and two babies.
Which is in the same yard space as the main coop with the rest of the flock:
So my question is, why is Mama plucking her feathers out? She is showing no signs of illness or infestation that I can see, she has plenty of shade, food, water, and frozen treats, and temperatures have been relatively mild compared to the week the eggs hatched (roughly mid 80’s this past week, vs over 100° the week of hatching).
Any input is helpful and appreciated.
Thank you!
I have a 14 month old black sexlink that went broody about 7 weeks ago. After two weeks of taking her eggs, we took pity on her and bought some fertilized eggs from a hatchery (we have no roo). Fast forward to today, and I have mama hen with two beautiful baby EEs that are about two weeks old!!
Four of her eight eggs developed into chicks, two of the chicks didn’t make it (one had its shell broken early by one of the other girls in the flock, one never hatched at all). After day 21, she was still extremely protective of her remaining eggs, even though there was no outward sign of life. We let her keep them a few extra days, just in case. On the 27th day I finally removed all the unhatched eggs from Mama and she seemed to do fine transitioning to caring for her babies. She is extremely attentive and protective of them, and they follow her everywhere.
Ever since I took Thelma’s eggs away though, she has been plucking out her own feathers. She had originally plucked out her chest feathers when she was sitting on her eggs, but now she is plucking feathers from all over; her sides, back, wings, and butt. There are piles of feathers scattered around the small coop we have within our larger chicken pen where Thelma and babies are located.
A visual of the feathers (And Thelma with her babies!):
And for reference, below is the setup we have going.
The small coop currently housing the mama and two babies.
Which is in the same yard space as the main coop with the rest of the flock:
So my question is, why is Mama plucking her feathers out? She is showing no signs of illness or infestation that I can see, she has plenty of shade, food, water, and frozen treats, and temperatures have been relatively mild compared to the week the eggs hatched (roughly mid 80’s this past week, vs over 100° the week of hatching).
Any input is helpful and appreciated.
Thank you!
