Stupid hens are killing my rooster, Help please!! ='''(

[Ms~Silkie~Girl]

I just let my rooster out from his temporary kennel cuz the hens were picking his feathers out, and they are picking them out again. What do i do!!! I know they have a protein deficency so what do i do, whgat can i give the hens so they stop eating feathers, also what can i put on my roosters butt so they dont peck it??

 

[Imp]

Quote:
OK, I'm not an expert here. But if you want to increase the protein for the hens give them: meat, cheese, dairy, catfood etc.
Maybe Blue Kote on the rooster's butt???
Might need to keep him seperated for longer. Was he completely healed?

Imp

 

[PortageGirl]

Imp has it about right IMO. Dry cat food, (no dog food - too much salt) or some meat scraps, or cottage cheese, or else scramble up some excess eggs if you have em, get some flock raiser that has higher protein content and feed em that for a while... after you think they're doing better, add a sccop or so a week to their reagular ration to keep em happy.

and yep, get the roo out of their way for longer... poor fellow is going to get a complex!

 

[Ms~Silkie~Girl]

Thanks, also we put blue kote but they still went after him. And he wasn't completely healed we thought he was in there so long (about a month) we thought maybe they would be fine now, but apparently not. Ill try some scrambled eggs. Thanks!

 

[lleighmay]

Dry cat food (cheap is fine, 30%). I throw out 3-4 handfuls every day for them to pick if they want to. Before I had some problems with feather picking and egg-eating until I took the advice if a life-long farmer friend of mine- less than 2 weeks and the problem was solved. Keep your roo isolated for a little while until he's healed and they've gotten what they need and, based on my experience anyway, this shouldn't be an issue.

 

[PunkinPeep]

Quote:
did you reapply the blue kote before sending him in with the hens?

i haven't had this situation with adult chickens, but with the little ones, i reapply it and make it dark before i put them back in, and it seems to do well.

after a month, the blue would be very faded, and that color seems to go a long way toward lessening the attraction (once it's dry that is)

 

[Kezzie]

Why do you think they have a protein deficiency? And what are you feeding them now?

 

[hensonly]

Pine tar. Get it in the horse section of your local feed store. Comes in a can like a small paint can. Get rubber gloves and a cheap paint brush. Get a helper, or do it at night when roo is roosting. Paint affected areas with pine tar. Tastes vile, at least to birds! Mine killed a flockmate last winter, pecked her to death while I was away, in the space of about two hours. Two more birds had blood, I did the pine tar thing, one taste and no more pecking. It is sticky, shavings will stick to it, but who cares. It eventually does wear off, reapply as needed. I never had to separate any birds after using pine tar.

Good luck, and thanks to all others for the alternate suggestions, as I do have occasional picking without blood. I will try the cat food and see if it stops. But the pine tar worked wonders for keeping them from doing serious damage to each other.

 

[jafo]

How big / old is your rooster? Is he the same age? Our roo is maybe a month older than his girls, and he's definately in charge, and they know it.

 

[loralei]

I had a problem with aggressive pecking.... did much reading from other sources as well as this forum and found the following from dlhunicorn:


The specific amino acid (protein) associated with eating feathers is methionine ... eggs and yogurt contain this amino acid so give both of these (mix the cooked egg through feed and offer the yogurt free choice)... I do not recommend the cat food...too much salt.

I also read that black oil sunflower seeds (can't find that post) contain that amino acid. I added 1 part of the seeds to my gals regular feed and bingo! the feather eating/aggressive pecking has stopped. It's been about 3 weeks and the feathers are regrowing and the girls go crazy for them.

Hugs to your Roo!