There are three tall shrubs in the garden which I intend to try to dig up and plant in the chicken run extension. My husband said it would be best to do this when the run is complete or it will mean the guys having to work around the shrubs.
One of the shrubs is more like a tree and I decided to take the top out of it to make it more manageable. I put this branch in the run for the girls and they soon started stripping the leaves from it.
Honey and Amber’s necks are getting badly plucked and I am desperate to get the run extended so I can separate the big girls from the little girls. Topaz and Sparkle are having feathers plucked from their bottoms too.
I e-mailed our guy to see when they can start building the run and he e-mailed back that it will be Wednesday or Thursday.
A branch in the run
Honey and Amber have their necks plucked
Honey is in the foreground and Amber in the background. You can see how badly they are being plucked. This is much worse than it was last year and it breaks my heart to see this.
When I went in to the run at the end of the day the branch was just a bare stick without a single leaf left on it. It didn’t last as long as I thought it would but I should have known better.
I have asked advice on the “Down The Lane” forum about Amber’s egg laying problem. It was good to find that someone else had also experienced this. They had a bantam leghorn with the same problem even down to laying eggs in the run and some having streaks of blood on them. They said she was fine in between egg laying and sadly died but from a respiratory problem not her egg laying problem.
Some people suggested that I could try to stop Amber laying and that there are things a vet could do to stop her laying which I will look into. It was also suggested that I could stop giving protein to cause her to lay less often.
As an experiment I haven’t given the girls any protein since Amber’s last egg which was four days ago. I thought even if it just gives her a bit of a break it would help her.
She has been back to normal since her last egg but this morning is looking unwell again so I know the next egg is on it’s way soon.
I am finding that the feather plucking and Amber’s difficulty with egg laying is making my chicken keeping experience less of a pleasure and more of a worry at the moment. It’s a shame as integration of the new girls went so easily and the flock are happily settled together.
It’s just so sad to see Amber struggle with her eggs and all the little girls gradually losing feathers. I really hope the run extension will at least enable me to stop the feather plucking. I can’t wait for it to be started.
Click here to see the history of my flock.
Thinking about it as the plucking has been going on so long now it sort of proves it is the big girls that are the culprits as you had the banties after the big ones..
I think the quicker you can get them separated with your bigger run the better and let the big girls peck them selves oven ready as your husband suggested ..
I always knew it was the big girls doing it and I can’t wait for them to be separated. It is really getting me down at the moment having the two problems to deal with. I only hope the little girls will get their feathers back. I wish I could get the run done sooner but am at the mercy of the builder.