Red Bottomed hens?

[nuttyredhead]

I googled this and have gotten a few different cause. mites/egg bound/possible rough roo? Not sure which is more accurate. I have included a link to what they look like.

http://www.hencam.com/images/eleanor_red_butt.jpg

I wasnt able to hold her and take a pic myself but this is what it looks like. I have 3 hens with red bottoms like this. I cleaned the coop on saturday, replacing all shavings. I just went out and looked at my girls and cant find any mites. Several of them are missing feathers at the base of their tails too. Is this due to my over-active roo??? Or something i am missing?? Oh (editing to add) i have 15 hens and 1 roo, 8 months old. They are all acting/eating/drinking/walking fine!

Thanks in advance...

 

[CMV]

Hi Nuttyredhead-

I hope you are enjoying our non-winter so far. I am loving it! We have earned a break from the never-ending winters we have been having up to this point.

I looked at the pic and it looks like you have some feather picking going on. The areas that are most likely afflicted in feather picking are the butts and the lower backs. I would be watching the flock to see if you can find the culprit. I think you may want to watch them on the roost as that is where you are likely to see the behavior. The lower backs could also be related to your roo. The butts are definitely picking, though.

You can check for bugs, but I think you will find that the problem is a behavioral issue rather than an infestation.

 

[nuttyredhead]

Thats what I afraid of. I saw a few going after my roos tail the other day, and i have one girl that has bare patches on her chest. There are no bugs, so it looks like i have a picker....so how do i stop her???

And YES I love the non-winter we are having!!!!

 

[CMV]

I would try isolating her from the flock for a few weeks to start. You can increase her protein intake while she is her time-out to correct any protein deficiencies she may have. After a few weeks, she can be put back in the flock. Theoretically, the break will make her lose standing in the pecking order and making it so she is too busy protecting herself to keep picking on her mates. Hopefully, the problem will be that easy to fix. Unfortunately, feather picking is a contagious habit, that spreads through the flock quickly. It often starts as a nutritional issue that rapidly becomes a nasty behavioral issue. Sometimes you can alleviate the problem, but sometimes it becomes a fact of life for your flock. So, I really recommend that you address the issue ASAP.

I had major problems last year with feather picking. It started out as boredom with the eternal winter we had, but evolved into this nightmare that I thought was never going to end. I ended up culling a great deal of my flock to finally stop the problem after trying every trick known to poultry keeping to stop it and failing to do so. I eventually solved the problem, but the cure was a tough nut to swallow.

I hope this helps. Good luck.