bazza
New Member
Posts: 22
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Post by bazza on Mar 10, 2011 20:08:52 GMT 8
New to all this I have 3 hens together, 16 week Australorp which started loosing a small amount of feathers 3 weeks back but in a very small way but looks as shinny and fluffy as ever my 22 week old Leghorn is flighty as ever yet no feather lose (well maybe one or two when they both pick on her..) my older RIR I think 15 months went broody and I gave her 12 F egg yet she broke all of the by the time 21 days was up, a week after this, two weeks ago she started loosing feather quite a bit her demina is fine but she looks very patchy and small balding in two places what do you think moulting or worse?? any help.
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Post by linda29 on Mar 11, 2011 7:38:24 GMT 8
Hi Bazza Starting with chickens can be challenging when you are learning about the day to day care. The feather loss could be due to part early molt. Where they lose some feathers but not most. That comes later down the track. If they are in good health and show no signs of illness, then it all fine. But I would check to see if you have any lice on them. You will see thse little horrors or their eggs around the vent area and under the wings. If you see lice, give the birds a dusting of poultry dust which you can get from city farmers or better pets and gardens. As for your RIR and her hatching she too could have had lice after sitting for awhile and the biting of the lice makes the sitting hens itch like mad and sometimes they damage the eggs. Check the nest area for an infestation and repeat the steps with the poultry dust and dust the nesting area as well. This same situation happened to me last year. Goodluck. Cheers Linda29
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bazza
New Member
Posts: 22
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Post by bazza on Mar 11, 2011 9:18:45 GMT 8
Thx Linda for your kindness in replying, my wife and I looked carefully not knowing what lice looks likes but nothing obvious, we didn,t see anything move or crawl. As for the eggs when I built the coup I built the boxes small as to prevent (i have forgotten why lol. its was something good for me it might be to help stop broodiness or getting to comfortable. he he he.)something. So not sure if this contributed to the damage.Cheers bazza
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