Our flock of 1 year old birds is doing very well.  This is the group that lives in the “Palace” – the nice new coop that consumed our entire spring last year as we were building it. There are 12 hens, 2 roosters and 6 guineas in this flock.  They are more like 2 separate flocks though.  The chickens and guineas basically just ignore each other.  We don’t really ever see them interacting at all and they roost in separate areas.  Once the days started increasing in length the hens started laying more and we are getting a good number of eggs from both flocks.  With 2 big roosters in the Palace flock, some of the girls were really starting to get scratched up from the treading of the active roosters on their backs.  It was obvious which hens were favorites and I felt so sorry for them with their sore-looking bare backs.  After a bit of research online, I found this is a very common problem and there are a lot of protective products available to help give hens some relief.

Elanor

Wanda

 

I found Hen Saver Chicken Saddles and ordered 2 to see how they would work out.  They are very simply constructed pieces of heavy duty material shaped to fit the hen’s back and are held in place by elastic that slips over the wings.  The elastic is nice and loose when in place and doesn’t seem to bind or pinch at all.  The first 2 hens to try on their saddles didn’t seem to mind at all and went right about their business of scratching around the yard.  I gave the saddles a few days to see if they really would stay in place and help to protect the hens.  Well they passed the test and have stayed in place beautifully so I ordered 4 more.  The saddles are such simple little things but they really seem to be working well.  Here is a picture of Wanda modeling her new saddle.  Eleanor has a pretty navy one that I will have to get a picture of.

 

Wanda wearing her protective saddle