As some of you know, I've recently lost some of our Babcock chicks to pecking, and I mentioned this to Simon our meat chick breeder, and he said that multi vitamins might help too. He has some cockerals who seem to start feather pecking when they are about 16 weeks old, and some of the pecked ones just seem to take it then lay down and die, which is what these chicks did! But although the chicks had plenty to keep them occupied in the house, they wouldn't go out in the snow, and I think they were getting bored with what was in the house ie straw bale and CD's the occasional cabbage hanging,. But now the snow has gone and more and more are coming out into the run, they have stopped.
However, our 'friends' down the road asked me to look at their Amberlinks who are from the same hatching as the ones Rob and Julie have. We popped down there today. haven't been down their place for some months. WEll...... these hens look like ex battery hens!!!! One had a prolapse poor little girl and 4 of the others are not only bald, but looked tall and VERY thin. One of them had a thick line of calcium full poop down her bum all dried on. They look nearly bald.
Then while I was talking to 'him', Brian saw 'her', feeding them. What are you doing he asked. Giving them their feed. It was in an ice cream tub, but I don't know what size tub it was. the feeder was empty apart from this bit she put in there and the birds swooped on it like they were starving. She told Brian they give the girls a tub of pellets in the morning, then early afternoon their corn and fruit and veg, then another tub of pellets in the afternoon, but when I sold them the hens I told them to feed them pellets adlib, with a few treats and corn late afternoon. But I've just thought, we saw them at 12.30 lunchtime, so if that was the morning feed, no wonder they were starving!
So its obvious the poor thngs are pecking each other to get some goodness! Brian was really angry with them and I told them to go and get some poultry spice and add to their feed and brian told them to fill the feeder up and keep it full, but I think they are having problems making ends meet, so the chooks suffer! God knows how long a bag of pellets lasts them, months I should think. I took a few photo's on my phone, but I can't put them on this computer and my other one is waitig for my little study to be re-decorated before it goes back in there and gets plugged in again!
Brian's just told me, it wasn't an ice cream tub she used, it was a small butter tub! No wonder they are pecking each other!! We gave them a bag of mash this afternoon which Brian bought cheap, but we don't use it!!!
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March 29, 2018, 06:34