Our Chickens

We have had our current layer chickens since about May last year. So these girls are roughly 17 months old. Up until two months ago we have had no health problems with the birds but as you will see from these photos they now look a little tatty as they have lost patches of feathers around the neck and also on there backsides.




In themselves the birds are very alert eating very well and laying eggs everyday. We have the 6 birds and generally get 4-5 eggs a day and some days 6. Diet wise they have the basics layer pellets and corn but this is supplemented with all many of food that is left over in the house - rice,pasta,chips, vegetables,fruit - just about anything really. I also provide lots of grass cuttings.

From what I can tell chickens naturally lose feathers when they are moulting. However these lasts about 6 weeks and is usally accompanied by the birds ceasing to lay as they put there energy into development of new feathers. So we have ruled this out.

Secondly we thought there might be some parasite lice or mite. We have given the chicken house a total clean from top to bottom and can see no evidence of any bug in the house.


Chicken lice would seem to be most likely cause of the problem. However we have treated all the birds with a powder but the problem persists and again I can't see anything in the house.

I was also told this problem could arise from lack of green vegetation or from the social pecking order. We do supplement them with green vegetation as they have eaten everting green in their enclosure.

Anyone keep chickens have any advice for a novice chicken keeper!

----------------
Now playing: Eater - Thinking of the USA
via FoxyTunes