HELP FROM CHICKEN OWNERS PLEASE!

[hectors house]

I rescued 6 Battery/Barn hens last August - they soon settled in and were all laying eggs - apart from one who had a cough when we got her and she died within 2 weeks. The eggs tailed off during the winter as expected due to fewer daylight hours but we were still getting 2 or 3 eggs from 5 hens each day, I went away on holiday at Easter and my mum came up each evening to feed the cat, hens & collect any eggs (the feeder holds plenty of food so once a day should have been enough plus I bought an extra water drinker in case one got knocked over during the day, so they never went without water), my mum did a list of how many eggs she collected, it started off at 4 or even 5 each day and by the end of the fortnight we were away had dropped right down to 1 egg every day, very occasionally 2 eggs.

We have been back from holiday for 6 or 7 weeks now and are still only getting one egg a day - today none so far!
The chickens are looking very scuffy and are pecking each others feathers out, I know they stop laying eggs when they are moulting but do their feathers just fall out or is it right that the other hens help the process by pecking them - a couple of hens have such bald bottoms they look "oven ready".

I have treated them with both powder and spray for red mites (and sprayed the coop), have bought spray that's suppose to stop them pecking each other, have put balls in the run to give them something different to peck at.

Just wondered how everyone else's hens are doing and if they are laying - our hens are 2 years old now - have they just run out of eggs or will they start laying again? All the websites say that Autumn & Winter is bad time for laying but they should be on full production in Spring & Summer?

[Ripeberry]

What kind of food are you feeding them? Is it layers pellets?

[Dragonfly]

I have 5 chickens 2 are 5/6 years old now. I get between 2-3 eggs a day. But they went off lay for a long time 2 months (Ish), never found out why and still don't know,mystery. I have feathers everywhere at the moment don't think being pecked out.Just make sure layers pellet, grit and I use diatom in the coop .Havent wormed them for some time. Do you worm yours?.

[newbie]

Mine went off lay over Winter which is normal due to less daylight hours. I currently have a chook that isn't laying but that's cause she is broody....she is also shedding feathers to help prepare for nesting. I will need to cage her soon to get her out of her broody state! Perhaps yours are going through this too??? It tends to happen when there is a hot spell

[hectors house]

Thank you Ripeberry & Dragonfly - I am feeding them quarter corn to three quarters layers pellets in feeder, plus throw in a couple of small scoops of corn in the afternoon for them to scratch around in run, plus feeding cooked vegetable peelings / broccoli and cauli stalks, weeds that I pull up in garden.

They are pecking each others feathers out but I don't know if this is what happens when they moult - they just stand there and accept it, so I don't know if the others are sort of helping to groom them or just being nasty little :censored:

Do you have anything in your runs to distract them?, people have suggested balls, hanging up cabbages etc but then admitted that it didn't make any difference - almost tempted to cover the bald patches in Sudocream tomorrow but they will just get dust and wood chippings stuck all over them!

[Dragonfly]

Mine have lots of things to climb,coop is high off ground with a ladder to that also, basket hanging up for cabbages etc, cd's hanging. I have two silkies that go broody regularly thats why I have a broody hutch ( hutch ,but floor is taken out and replaced with tough wire to let air circulate their nether regions!! hutch up quite high also!).Just out of interest why do you put 1/4 corn in with there layers? I thought if hens got too fat they can go off lay, no idea if true. Having said that my hens should be the size of a house after the scrapes they get:laughing:

[Dragonfly]

Least if there bottoms get wood chip etc stuck to them it will disguise the bald patch :laughing::laughing:. both my old chickens had bald bottoms when very young year old or so, never did get to the bottom of it whoops:blush: took ages to grow back but the feathers did and never had that problem again and like I said there either 5 or 6yrs now.

[hectors house]

Ok thanks maybe I will cut down on the corn - I just started putting the corn in the feeder just in case I wasn't around in the afternoon to throw some in the run. They do seem to be getting through the food much faster, the metal feeder filled up used to last at least 2 sometimes 3 days but now it only lasts 1 1/2 days - but I thought if I kept them busy feeding they wouldn't get bored and peck each other. I think it is probably just habit now as barn/battery hens used to living in cramped conditions. My hens also have a ladder to get into the coop and have a perch in the run. One was broody before we went on holiday and we had to keep moving her out of the nesting boxes and she kept digging up the shavings and making nests but haven't seen any signs of that recently.

Maybe I will try to make a broody cage, even if they weren't broody it may give them a chance to recover from being pecked for a while. Thanks for your help, I even rang the rescue centre we got them from today as I was worried that I was somehow neglecting them through my inexperience but they didn't seem too worried about them.

[Dragonfly]

I'm sure you are doing everything right. Never had rescued chickens (battery) but have heard they can be bullies. So don't worry to much.

[hsav]

we have 7 hens and how many eggs we get varies day to day some times 3 sometimes 6. We put layers pellets down for them in the mornings and they get any scraps in the afternoon once I feel they have eaten enough pellets. They have a few small handfuls of corn late afternoon. Maybe try not putting the corn with their layers for a while, if we give corn in the morning they don't seem to touch their pellets.

Ours have moulted at various times of the year, some do during winter, but we have 4 ex bats, one is moulting at the moment so isn't laying and she looks scruffy. The other 3 have moulted in the last 4 months so was off lay then and now looks so pretty.

Hope yours start laying better soon x