scruffy hens

[philippa@65]

I have 3 hybrid hens that are excellent layers and never miss a day, they are about 1year and a half old, ive also got a white leghorn cockerel and a cuckoo maran, both born this year. The cockerel and the maran are in excellent conditon bt my 2 of my laying hens are looking a bit worse for wear. one especially, i have debugged them all, wormed them all and not sure what else to do? they all eat well and seem happy enough but just look hard done to! I get at least one double yolker from these hens a week. I read in a mag that sometimes good layers put lots of effort into the eggs and not into replacing feathers, is this true?

 

[Reinbeau]

Maybe up their protein. It takes a lot of energy to make feathers and lay eggs! I'm feeding mine extra black oil sunflower seeds and safflower seeds to try to help them regrow their feathers they lost to the overzealous, huge roo I got rid of - my hens are pretty bedraggled looking, too.

 

[purpletree23]

Have you checked the coop for mites? The best time is at might with a flashlight. Pull the litter away from the wall near a corner and let us know what you find.

Is the rooster too aggressive? Maybe you could separate them for a few days.

What are you feeding them? They might be missing something in their diet?

 

[philippa@65]

I havent checked the house for mites but treated it with some powder. They wre like this before we got the roo.
They are fed on layers pellets in a morning, they must get enuff, they always leave some! They free range our allotment and i give them a handful of corn to get them in on a night.
My dad keeps the other 3 that we got with them and they are in peak condition but dont lay as good eggs?