Skinny chickens, feather loss and feathers being pulled out

[Chickendad1963]

Hello everyone -

I am relatively new to having chickens. I had a few die early on, but the flock has stablized at 14 hens of various breeds that are pets/egg producers. All of the chickens are skinny. They all went through their first molt and everything seemed to be going well. I then noticed that most of the hens were loosing feathers. I watched them closely and noticed some of the chickens were pulling feathers out of other chickens (Not due to pecking order). The coop is 12x12 and has multiple roosts. The coop looks like a Cape Cod style home. The coop side has windows on 3 walls as well as one in the dormer. I have 2 temperature controlled fans that pull in fresh air through the windows and exhaust through the roof vents. The run is covered and is 10x24 and also has multible roosts. The coop and the run are shaded most of the time due to being beneath large trees. The egg production varies, but I am usually getting somewhere between 4-8 eggs per day. They are being fed a 16% layer feed and I give them various treats including cracked corn, oats, black oil sunflower seeds, meal worms, as well as fruits and vegetables. I have given them alfalfa sprouts that I have grown for them. I change the water every other day and put apple cider vinegar and rooster booster each time I switch it out. I occasionly put in CORID liquid. There is a dustbath in the run and it gets alot of use. I have colorful xylephones inside the coop and inside the run that they sometimes look at but mostly ignore. I have things hanging from the ceiling in the run for cabbage heads or other veggies. I have a little picnic table that I put most of the grain treats on and they seem to enjoy that. I have a large stainless steel bowl for Oyster shell and another for grit. Their food is hanging from the ceiling and I add natural dewormer powder and DE to the food. I can not allow them to free range due to living in a subdivision. I will take all suggesions on what I need to do to get my ladies as healthy and happy as they can be. I know I must be missing something. Thank you all in advance

 

[Lemon-Drop]

It sounds like you’re doing everything you can, and they sound like a very well cared for flock!

I don’t have many suggestions, but hopefully some of the other fantastic members here can help you.

One of the things that come to mind is protein. Sometimes a low amount of protein in their feed can lead to issues. What brand is it?

Another thing, is as awesome and fun as it is to give them treats, giving them snacks and treats in moderation is overall going to be the best for their health.

Additionally, is there a reason for all the things you’re adding to the water? I don’t know that it’s a bad thing, per se, but I would make sure they also have access to fresh, clean, plain water as well. My girls are just fine with the plain water (although seem to prefer drinking out of muddy puddles ). What proportion of ACV to water do you do?

Probably the most helpful thing for us is pictures if you’re able to provide some.

Best of luck! You sound to be a fantastic chicken owner and deeply care about your flock!

 

[DLA]

10' x 24' run would be 240 square feet so that sounds like enough space for 14 chickens if you go by 10 sq ft per chicken. To many treats will result in them picking out the stuff they like best and perhaps not getting proper nutrients which would cause a problem. Have you visually inspected them for mice/lice and had a fecal float test done for worms? There's a lot of varying opinions on adding DE to feed and without knowing what is in the natural dewormer, can't say if it actually works or not. That may be something to have checked. Agree as @Lemon-Drop said about the water and posting some photos. Overall photos and a real close up of feathers around where there is feather loss plus also maybe under the wings and around the vent.

 

[Lemon-Drop]

10' x 24' run would be 240 square feet so that sounds like enough space for 14 chickens if you go by 10 sq ft per chicken. To many treats will result in them picking out the stuff they like best and perhaps not getting proper nutrients which would cause a problem. Have you visually inspected them for mice/lice and had a fecal float test done for worms? There's a lot of varying opinions on adding DE to feed and without knowing what is in the natural dewormer, can't say if it actually works or not. That may be something to have checked. Agree as @Lemon-Drop said about the water and posting some photos. Overall photos and a real close up of feathers around where there is feather loss plus also maybe under the wings and around the vent.

On DE, (diatomaceous earth), it may help with parasites, but because it’s so fine, I would heavily, heavily recommend avoiding it as it is a respiratory irritant (but I also am not the most experienced of people )

 

[Perris]

some of the chickens were pulling feathers out of other chickens (Not due to pecking order)

this sounds like severe feather-pecking behaviour. I have recently been reading a book which covers this (amongst other things), and it says
p.175 “SFP (severe feather pecking) is strongly related to feeding and foraging motivation. Dietary deficiencies, especially relating to amino acid and protein levels, are linked with SFP, as is inadequate fibre content… every time a diet is changed there is a risk that birds will find the new formulation relatively unpalatable… feeding pellets rather than mash is a strong and significant risk for SFP and for vent pecking, as birds spend far more time foraging with diets presented in mash form… [Lambton devised] 40 management strategies [to tackle it]... the most striking finding was that the more management strategies [to reduce the risk of FP] were employed, the lower the rates of GFP (gentle feather pecking) and SFP and the better the birds’ plumage condition. The strategies in question were subsequently made freely available on the Featherwel website (https://www.featherwel.org/featherwel/ )”
Nicol, C J Behavioural biology of chickens 2015