Moulting

But they hide when they are going bald. When chickens moult they look mangy and half naked. They look, in fact, a lot like chickens getting plucked for dinner which I think goes a long way to explaining why they feel like hiding during the worst part of their moulting which goes on for about a month. Most of the girls' feathers are filling in again.

We're having a fly problem right now that we've never had with chickens before. It is normal to have a few flies buzzing around a chicken coop. You should not have a cloud of them. I put a fly trap inside the coop and caught a ton of them. However, now the problem is that they are hanging out in our "breezeway" right next to the run. I'm not sure why. they've had fresh hay and a clean out but I think it may be because we haven't been scraping down their droppings where they roost on top of their hen house.

I think scraps are a problem too. When they don't like a scrap we give them it rots in their run. It's not true that all chickens will love all your scraps. Chickens are individuals just as people are.

Here's what they love:

cruciferous vegetables
melons
beets
slugs
snails
weeds
greens
corn
bread

Here's what they like but would leave alone for something better:

cucumber
apples
plums
grapes
carrot tops
tomatoes

Here's what they don't like at all:

carrots
onions


I need to locate a reference for what's poisonous to hens and what you should avoid for their health. This is information that I would like to include in my poultry raising article in Roost. I'll have to look for that. I'm pretty sure you're not supposed to feed them raw potato. They are natural scavengers (and omnivores, they will eat meat) and so they can eat a lot of things without being harmed but I know that there are some things that aren't good for them.

My girls are still laying but production is easing up. They don't lay as much when they moult and when the daylight hours begin to decrease. I'll have to buy eggs now through spring at least periodically unless I set up artificial light to stimulate laying but I won't do that because it wears the hens down faster.



I would love to hear what other people's hens' favorite scraps are. Do share!