Bloody Featherless Egg Eating White Rock Chickens/HELP!

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My White Rocks backsides are featherless and in some cases bloody. A few hens are naked all the way up their backs. I've cleaned, dusted, sprayed and it's getting worse by the day. They're eating the eggs unless I stand there and catch them as they fall. 50 hens/15 eggs. They'll end up pecking until they completely disembowel each other.What can I do? I don't have roosters. I have golfballs in the boxes where they lay their eggs. They have a big yard to themselves/fenced. I've sprayed their bottoms with Wound Kote to discourage pecking. I need help. I've got a year invested in these chickens nd they've just started laying!!

-- Donna Cooper (Donika610@hotmail.com), April 18, 2002

Answers

What are you feeding them? Sounds like it might be a protein problem.

-- Daryll in NW FLA (twincrk@hotmail.com), April 18, 2002.

How big is the yard? Are you sure they aren't overcrowded?

-- Mona in OK (modoc@ipa.net), April 19, 2002.

www.poultryconnection.com, they can help. goodluck. on my way out the door. LQ

-- Little Quacker (carouselxing@juno.com), April 19, 2002.

In my experience pecking is usually the result of crowding. If you can't do anything about that right away, isolate the ones in the worst condition, (I have even used dog crates to do this,) with their own food and water of course, for a few days until they heal some. Give the rest of the flock plenty of protein and greens, dry catfood will do, and fresh grass or the young spring weeds sprouting up. Chickens love their space! Good Luck Julie in OK

-- Julie (okwilk213@juno.com), April 19, 2002.

have they eaten the yard down to nothing green? fiberous?? Chickens will eat feathers when they need fiber in their diets and pulling the feathers leads to blood and then cannibalism...try getting a good leafy hay and chopping some up for them..don't go out and get a bunch of green stuff all at once or you will add diarrea to your problems..I give my birds chopped grass, lettuce and anything else green I can find all year, when they start pulling the hay out of the nest boxes, I chop hay for them..if you are feeding a prepared laying mash, then you will need to supply them with grit(ususally grushed granite rock, available at feed stores)when you start feeding the hay.keep us posted

-- Bee White (bee@hereintown.net), April 19, 2002.


Feed them whole oats, free choice. That'll help.

-- Rickstir (rpowell@email.ccis.edu), April 19, 2002.

I know not every one can do this, but can you let them free range? We have not had any of the problems that we read about when chickens are in a pen. Our chickens are so healthy and happy and they come in at night on their own. This may not even apply to your problem, but it might work if you can do it. Good luck to you!

-- Kathi in Mo. (rrubyacres@excite.com), April 19, 2002.

Yes, oats give them the fiber and helps a lot. We also throw ours alfalfa hay and bump up the protein content if we develop a feather eating problem.

-- diane (gardiacaprines@yahoo.com), April 19, 2002.

Egg eating, chicken eating chickens, my adivce, is to butcher um all and start over. Rooster doesn't have any thing to do with it. Make sure the next bunch has enough good food, no bugs, and enough room. If one of your new birds starts pecking on another get rid of that one right away before others (very soon) learn. It might be wise to seperate the picked on bird from the others till it heals. Chickens seem to love the taste of blood. Once they get started there is no stopping them.

-- T Carroll (caerhuill@att.net), April 21, 2002.

Egg eating is a bad habit or lack of calcium .Supply oystershells , have a good lay mash .Save all kitchen scraps for them also .Pecking really does sound like over crowding , they don't have enough room and enough to do .Sometimes grocery stoes will save there day old bread and produce for you , this will ad to there diets and also give them something else to do .Pick eggs as much as you can , I have also heard of putting dark fabric over the entrance .You may want to think about culling the bad ones out .

-- Patty Gamble (fodfarms@hotmail.com), April 21, 2002.


You might need to spend some time watching them, to find the egg eaters, since all your chickens are the same color, keep bottled food coloring (in the squeeze bottle) handy. Then you can mark the egg eaters, and kill them later.You can try trimming their beaks, and isolating, the bad ones,this sometimes works. If you can, use temporary fence,plastic or rolled up wire, (and roll it out in different directions, from your gate, or pen.) to give them something interesting to scratch at. Giving them free range, (for even twenty minutes)for an hour or so, could help. Giving them Fresh clover, or greens , two or three times a day could help. The lack of feathers could still be the molt, now that spring is here, feathers should return.

-- lacyj (hillharmony@hotmail.com), April 21, 2002.

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