JulesRSA
Songster
@Eggcessive jumping on here with a similar question - my girls are just under 5 months old, I’m seeing feather dander for the first time, as well as quite a few feathers in the coop and in their run - I don’t know what a “normal” amount is as a new chicken parent, but there are smaller ones and some larger tail / flight feathers - I know some are flight feathers bc I clipped my adventurous girl on one side about 3 weeks ago to stop her jumping the fence and becoming lunch for my neighbor’s dogs, and she has at least one new one grown back already!
All look healthy and are eating, drinking and pooping normally - they eat starter crumble supplemented with some treats maybe 2-3 days of the week (unseasoned cooked peas and rice, blueberries, corncobs, barley grass cuttings, kale leaves, broccoli heads, etc.) and whatever they get while free-ranging a few hours a couple days a week (when I can supervise them, as we have a ton of predators here).
They were malnourished, underweight and stressed when I got them at 12 weeks, so is this just delayed adult feather growth? It’s not bullying (there are feathers from all of them in pretty much equal proportion and I haven’t observed any bully behaviour) and I treated the coop and each bird for mites and lice last month.
Any advice much appreciated
