Expert: Abi - 7/15/2008

Question
Dear Abi,

We need your expertise. We have 46 hens and 4 roosters. I started with 21 hens and 4 roosters, but to make a long story short I inherited 25 more. I lost a few to illness and a raccoon, but the rest are healthy at least I think. The problem is my hens have lost alot of feathers. First I thought vitamin deficiency, but I feed them two large Folgers coffee cans of egg pellets in the morning and one large Folgers coffee can of chopped corn in the evening. They get apple cider vinegar in the water in the summer and white vinegar in the winter. This has helped with Coccidioses and other illnesses and it helps break down the food in their crop. They also get onions once every month to help with worms. We collect about 28 to 30 eggs per day so egg production is good to us anyway, we get more than we can handle. I let them out every evening for an hour to get bugs and grass. So I don't think it could be vitamins. But after watching them I noticed my roosters are very aggressive to them. They pull the feathers out of their necks and back. The hens that are liked the best are very bald and the skin is red, except for the wings and breast. My roosters are very productive a nice way of putting it. And it seems like they never stop. We do have one rooster Satan (black sex-linked) He was very aggressive to the kids until I educated him. So that's how he got his name. But Satan will chase after the other roosters when they are getting to ruff, but he's not always available and he can't protect them all. The most breed ones even wait until the roosters are in the house before they will enter so they have got to be stressed. I have thought about separating the roosters from the hens except for Satan, so they can get their feathers back before winter. But I'm not sure how to do this. Do I put them back in during the winter? And when I want babies how long do I put them back in? Any advice you have would be much appreciated.

Sincerely,
Tonya


Answer
First of all it seems like you've got a very good operation going here! You seem much more organised than me!!

The hens will get stressed around this season, as it is when the roosters are most 'active'. They should calm down as the weather does and all you can do really is wait if you don't want to separate the roosters. I think separating them might make them fight amongst themselves if they get frustrated! I use a bit of stockholm tar on my chickens if they're getting pecked, but it's horrid, sticky stuff and the girls hate it and get very upset about it!! But it does stop them getting pecked as it tastes so awful and stinks like bbq sauce! If you want to use this then I suggest not putting it on the sore bits if they have any as it might inflame them.

Thanks for your question.