- Jan 5, 2009
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I have a rooster who started getting pecked about a month ago - I assumed by the Alpha rooster. We've been applying Blu-Kote, but it's not helping. His butt is bare and pretty raw. Interestingly enough, the only chicken w/ blood and/or blu-kote on their beak is the "victim" rooster. Could it be self-cannabilism?
But today I went into the coop to gather eggs and I noticed the Alpha roo has a few places (it was hard to tell) near his butt (but higher on his back if that makes sense) that the feathers were broken/bloody - not his skin, just his feathers.
And looking around the coop, a few hens have the same thing. It almost looks like the feathers are either broken or getting rubbed down.
As a precaution, I sprayed blu-kote, but don't know if I should be doing more. I have a feeling that the first rooster won't make it because I can't heal it - he seems okay, but it can't be healthy. Until today he was the only one with any issues.
The chicks are only 25wks old - that would be too early for molting, right?
I got a poultry block a few weeks ago, but they picked through it real quick - I can't afford to keep those in the coop! They recently were switched to layer feed since they started laying a few weeks ago. They are able to go outside (though I don't think they do when snow is on the ground) and get artificial light from 4-9pm.
I'm new to chicken raising and I had hoped the blu-kote would fix the initial problem, but it didn't.
Sorry this post is all over the place - I guess I had more issues than I first thought!!
But today I went into the coop to gather eggs and I noticed the Alpha roo has a few places (it was hard to tell) near his butt (but higher on his back if that makes sense) that the feathers were broken/bloody - not his skin, just his feathers.
And looking around the coop, a few hens have the same thing. It almost looks like the feathers are either broken or getting rubbed down.
As a precaution, I sprayed blu-kote, but don't know if I should be doing more. I have a feeling that the first rooster won't make it because I can't heal it - he seems okay, but it can't be healthy. Until today he was the only one with any issues.
The chicks are only 25wks old - that would be too early for molting, right?
I got a poultry block a few weeks ago, but they picked through it real quick - I can't afford to keep those in the coop! They recently were switched to layer feed since they started laying a few weeks ago. They are able to go outside (though I don't think they do when snow is on the ground) and get artificial light from 4-9pm.
I'm new to chicken raising and I had hoped the blu-kote would fix the initial problem, but it didn't.
Sorry this post is all over the place - I guess I had more issues than I first thought!!
