Lakenvelders
Posted: Sat Jan 25, 2020 10:33 am
Are there any lakenvelder raisers on here besides myself?
My question is that I'm having trouble keeping them alive as chicks and as adults, first I hatched about 20 chicks back in late October all were doing great then moved them into the coop around the 4-5 week old age (lowering the brooder temperature a couple of degrees per day to clematis them to the coop temperature before moving) and over the course of a week I lost all of them except a male/female pair, now only have a cockerel from that original hatch if he makes it to adulthood he'll be the replacement for his tailless father.
Second question, now the breeding flock is pecking themselves to death, I've quadrupled they're room thinking that was the issue, lowering the bright lights to make it a bit darker, I'm now down to 7 hens versus the 12 hens I had in the fall and 1 rooster (originally 2 roosters but 1 was way too aggressive towards the kids and that's a no go for me), last night I treated a hen with that blue.?...in a bottle w/bingo dabbed on the cap and stains anything and everything it touches and left out in the alleyway alone to heal last night, trouble for her is that she's bleeding near the vent so anything that comes out like an egg tears out the scab, feather picking is also a problem as most of my birds don't have tail feathers all will be a year old come April.
It's a love hate relationship with this breed but very discouraging normally I'd be knuckles deep in maximizing egg production by now for chicks but don't have that drive.
Any ideas would be appreciated.
Thanks
My question is that I'm having trouble keeping them alive as chicks and as adults, first I hatched about 20 chicks back in late October all were doing great then moved them into the coop around the 4-5 week old age (lowering the brooder temperature a couple of degrees per day to clematis them to the coop temperature before moving) and over the course of a week I lost all of them except a male/female pair, now only have a cockerel from that original hatch if he makes it to adulthood he'll be the replacement for his tailless father.
Second question, now the breeding flock is pecking themselves to death, I've quadrupled they're room thinking that was the issue, lowering the bright lights to make it a bit darker, I'm now down to 7 hens versus the 12 hens I had in the fall and 1 rooster (originally 2 roosters but 1 was way too aggressive towards the kids and that's a no go for me), last night I treated a hen with that blue.?...in a bottle w/bingo dabbed on the cap and stains anything and everything it touches and left out in the alleyway alone to heal last night, trouble for her is that she's bleeding near the vent so anything that comes out like an egg tears out the scab, feather picking is also a problem as most of my birds don't have tail feathers all will be a year old come April.
It's a love hate relationship with this breed but very discouraging normally I'd be knuckles deep in maximizing egg production by now for chicks but don't have that drive.
Any ideas would be appreciated.
Thanks