The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Poultry & Waterfowl => Topic started by: smallflockshearing on December 15, 2014, 01:13:36 pm
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Hi, can anyone advise, please? We have just 6 hybrid hens at the moment, but they have not laid for a few weeks. They seem healthy and alert, except that four straggly ones keep losing feathers. I had de-loused them, but it looks like 2 big girls are ruling the roost and pecking the others.
I was wondering whether getting a cockerel would sort them out and put a stop to the bullying?
Thanks
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They're probably moulting, they'll maybe look oven-ready before they finish! If they have plenty of room to escape don't worry but if not you may need to separate them to where they are safe but can still see each other until they get their new feathers. :fc:
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Remove the bullies to another pen and reintroduce them when the new feathers have come through. They'll be at the bottom of the pecking order in an established group.
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I thought moulting was a Springtime thing - am I wrong?
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Hybrids seem to be a rule unto themselves Smallflockshearing. There are, after all, designed to lay like crazy and only to live 18 months being despatched before their first moult.
Our Pedigrees all moulted between June and November, although a few stragglers still have feathers to finish.
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We find 90% of ours moult at the first drop in temp in autumn as the days close in. Some do it at other times, especially if it's very hot which seems to shock them into it. But most of mine have just feathered up again and started laying.
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anti-pecking spray works a treat.
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Two of our four hybrids have just activated self-pluck mode too, and are currently walking around very nearly oven ready. Giving them lots of space to avoid the bullies is good (our two moulty ones aren't hanging around with the rest of the flock just now). If that's not enough, as MF says, you're best to temporarily remove the bullies, rather than the ones being bullied.
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If they have been badly pecked cover up any red/blood spots with sudocrem or similar. Even their sisters will peck at anything red.
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Last autumn my hens started this ridiculous moult thing and then two of them dropped dead. I assumed that an unseasonal moult bodes ill !
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Certainly autumn is the normal time for pure breeds to moult - it's quite hard on them so maybe there was a correlation between the moult and dropping dead but I imagine there was another factor in there too. Also not sure about hybrids but many pure breeds won't be laying at this time of year because it's so dark - mine tend to kick back in when the days start getting longer although something is a bit odd this year because some have already started and the cockerels/drakes are all bickering a bit already.
H
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My Silkie cockerel is being a swine, bashing up all that aren't Silkies, hens as well as cockerels.
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My girls are too young to moult but one of my neighbour's hybrids looks awful-really bare. We give the girls their normal feed in the mornings, and now we either give them noodles, pasta & veg or porridge with honey before they go to roost, as the weather's awful. The girls love it and I think it must help, a bit of extra TLC!! :thumbsup:
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A 3-day exile improved things a little briefly, but the big girl is back to looking menacing already. After she was released, her minions took to the broody coop with her overnight in a show of unity. Back in the main henhouse last night, 3 other hens crammed themselves into a single nest box, hiding from her. They really are ridiculous creatures.