Chook check in

[Mikey]

I've noticed that my chooks egg shells are getting thinner, I've got oyster shell there for them but they don't seem to go for it. Is it worth rinsing and smashing up their own shells to see if they'd prefer them instead?

One of my chooks has been defeathered around her rear for the best part of 9 months, and it doesn't look like they are going to grow back. There's no blood or signs of pecking, and I removed the bird which was doing it, but is it possible that she's removed the root and that feathers will not return?

[Scarlet]

Their own shells can help but also scraps and treats can cause thin eggs shells. In the summer when the kids are home from school they tend to get more treats and so eat les of their layers pellets! Try cutting them out for a few weeks to see if that is the cause.
For the bird with the bare bum it could be that they are still pecking her when your not looking! Try some purple spray on her for a few weeks

[petal]

if you use your own egg shells you have to cook them then crush. Are they fed just layers pellets? do they have fresh greens? How old is she? She might have a bald bum forever, such is life.

[RichmondHens]

If she is a hybrid she may well not grow any new feathers till she stops laying and goes into a proper moult. Hybrids do tend to put all their energy into laying and don't refeather as readily as pure breeds if the feathers are lost for any reason.

[Mikey]

Hi yes, she is a hybrid they both are, I can't remember what breed she is, its the one that Americans prefer for battery hens, white something or other.

I can't say for definite that she's not being pecked but I only have two since I got rid of the bully, and there doesn't seem an obvious pecking order, they just like being with each other. When the bald one is in laying the other one guards the door, or sits next to her.

I do give them a handful of corn in the evening before they go in for the night, other than that they are on layers pellets. They get my grass cuttings once a week when I mow the lawn, and the dandelion leaves which I pull up, now and again, and any other greenery I have but thats very sporadic.

They are roughly 20 months old, I had them at point of lay a year last March, they haven't looked like moulting yet, which I was all prepared for at about 12 months.

[Newtothis]

Hi Mikey
I've got a white leghorn as well and she had a bad bout of feather pecking about six months ago, and guess what she also has a bare bum.....
Doesn't seem to bother her though.
Guess thats a chooks life!

David

[Mikey]

Well she still has a bare rear, and she hasn't stopped laying, and there is no sign that the scaredy chicken other one is doing it, so I'm resigned to believe either they are not going to grow back or that she is a troubled self harmer.

[chris]

Get some more in mun!

[Narnia]

Possible cause of feathers on the rear end '

Hi Mikey
I've got a white leghorn as well and she had a bad bout of feather pecking about six months ago, and guess what she also has a bare bum.....
Doesn't seem to bother her though.
Guess thats a chooks life!

David

An old timer told me that what burns their bum (to bauldness) is too much corn. The chooks he was refering to were given a lot of corn to make the yokes yellow.
Is this right do you think?