The Poultry Keeper

Alfietinker · Joined: 04 Jan 2006 Posts: 82 Location: Southminster, Essex

Hello all again! Sorry I've not been around for a while but I've had a few computer issues...... And what with the lovely weather, I've been in the garden at all opportunities - promise it won't happen again!

Anyway, my last post was just after we got our first girls and they were establishing the pecking order. Daisy started pulling feathers out of Florence and Esmarelda's bottom. The advice was to use violet spray, check Daisy gets enough calcium and let things settle.

Well things have settled and all three seem quite content. They all lay most days with generally super hard shells so I think the calcium is OK? (We did have a little hiccup when I think they gorged themselves on my grandad's excess cabbages Laughing

) but we're back to normal.

However Florence's feathers don't seem to be growing back. Esmarelda is now fully clothed but nothing on Florence. We spray regularly with violet spray and we see very little signs of bullying. If anything, Florence is Daisy's buddy and Esmarelda is at the bottom of the order.

Occasionally we'll find black feathers in the run which we presume are Florence's but we never now see Daisy bully. There are a few downy feathers around her vent now but they don't seem to grow.

Are the feathers just taking a very long time to regrow, or would Daisy still be tempted by them and is plucking the new growth each time?

As I say, she seems perfectly happy and not in distress, I'm just concerned that they'll start going through the moult soon and want her to recover quickly.

I do give them ACV once a month. We got them in April, so about 3 months now.

Is there anything else I can do?

debcat · Posted: Tue Jul 04, 2006 4:06 pm Post subject:

as far as I know, if they are really badly pecked then the feathers might not grow back till the next moult
HTH

Alfietinker · Joined: 04 Jan 2006 Posts: 82 Location: Southminster, Essex

Cor that was quick - thanks!

That's a relief to know. Esmarelda's feathers gew back quite quickly but she had very little 'damage' compared to Florence.

She has a completely bare bottom, stretching nearly from side to side and a couple of inches deep (I guess about an area about 4 x 2 inches). There has never been any sign of blood on her so the skin is not damaged.

Makes it easy to check for lice though!

George · Joined: 14 Apr 2005 Posts: 5661 Location: London

If she's still plucking out feathers as they start to grow that would explain it as well, eventually they stop producing feathers until their next moult