She's gonna freeze

[MamaPoult]

I had the same issue with bear backed hens. In our case we had too many roosters at one point (2 roos, 4 hens) and the hens took a solid beating and are still mending nearly a year after our ratio was fixed. We tried saddles prior to removing one of the roosters and found that it seemed to make things worse for the hens so we took them off. With the removal of one roo and the saddles things began to improve, albeit slowly.

Very interesting! I'm not sure if she's improving yet since I just recently put it on. Thanks for sharing though, I'll have to keep an eye on it !

 

[Yardmom]

Only if feather damage is severe will the feathers grow back immediately. Most of the time feathers only grow back once a year. That time of year is about now, but each one goes at her own pace
Often people will refer to a hen that is mated often as being a favorite. That is not always the case and can actually be the opposite. A hen that is not established in a place with a rooster becomes a target of the roosters as they try to claim her. Staying on the roosts or off to the side due to injury can make a hen susceptible to this type of mating.

 

[DonyaQuick]

I've thought of saddle cover but i don't know if that will work. Any ideas?

Hen saddles can definitely help a bit with temperature resilience for naked-backed hens, espeically protection from wind. If your hen's behavior has changed due to being chilled from wind, such as if she's staying in the coop a lot, then I would say a saddle is worth a try. Although many of them don't add insulation, they are like a wind-breaker. I use the ones from medium size denim-type saddles from* Down Under that have flaps to also protect the wings.

If there are remnants of feather shaft left in the pores, the feathers will not grow back until a regular molting cycle. With any luck that will be soon for her.

I did have two hens this past winter that completely failed to do their annual molt. By February they had many scratty and naked patches just from feathers wearing out and breaking. Long complicated story as to why that situation happened, but they both wore those denim saddles all winter and it helped them a lot to get through the nastiness of the winters up here in NY; they would often start shivering if I removed the saddles (briefly necessary at times to check on them and/or clean the saddles).

EDIT: *originally typed “for” but meant “from”

 

[Rick589]

Only if feather damage is severe will the feathers grow back immediately. Most of the time feathers only grow back once a year. That time of year is about now, but each one goes at her own pace
Often people will refer to a hen that is mated often as being a favorite. That is not always the case and can actually be the opposite. A hen that is not established in a place with a rooster becomes a target of the roosters as they try to claim her. Staying on the roosts or off to the side due to injury can make a hen susceptible to this type of mating.

Two of our hens went, and were allowed, to go broody. Each hatched out eggs and afterwards they regrew, or began regrowing, the lost back feathers. All of this is taking place when they would be expected to have that first molt. These in question are about 18 months old.

 

[countrygirl4513]

I like to give my hens the pelletized Rooster Booster with added Garlic and oregano spice and oats! This seems to really help grow them back. I also have a mating saddle on one of my hens who has a bare back that she seems to appreciate

Can you show me a picture of the mating saddle?

 

[Rick589]

Can you show me a picture of the mating saddle?

Here is one of our hens wearing a denim saddle

 

[Rick589]

Very interesting! I'm not sure if she's improving yet since I just recently put it on. Thanks for sharing though, I'll have to keep an eye on it !

I think what aggravated it for us is that we put the saddles on before we removed the second rooster. The boys continued to fight over the hens and the saddles ended up being more of a ‘weapon’ so to speak.

 

[MamaPoult]

Here is one of our hens wearing a denim saddle

Aww! So cute! Mine has the exact same one only blue

 

[MamaPoult]

Can you show me a picture of the mating saddle?

It's just like the one @Rick589 posted the picture of right below your comment

 

[Rick589]

Aww! So cute! Mine has the exact same one only blue

We bought a three pack, red, dark blue, blue. Used them about two months then packed them up.