Single hen

[Dolly]

Hi everyone,

 

We've been using ukadex on our 2 girls to try and stop them being pecked and plucked and it seems to be helping a bit but I have a few questions if anyone can help...

 

1. How often do you have to respray them? (we sprayed on Friday but yesterday (Sunday) the perpetrator had another couple of pecks at them).

 

2. Does it stain the feathers long term? ie. will I need to give my light sussex a bath at some point as she looks awful!

 

3. How long before we should expect to see the feather plucking stop? I know it's only been a few days but it's so upsetting and frustrating!

 

We tried a beak ring on the offender which worked but removed it to try the spray - I hope we won't have to resort to the ring permanently...

 

Thanks!

[chelsea]

I've been using Ukadex since last August believe it or not and it doesnt permanently stain the feathers.

 

I think it took at least 2 weeks for the pecker to be permanently put off!

 

We respray 2-3 times a week depending on if the "whiff" has worn off or not.

 

It was the last resort for me and it was the only thing that worked, so persevere and hopefully should work.

[Egluntyne]

Ditto to Chelsea's post.

 

If the ring was working, I'd have stuck with that I think.

[miffy]

sorry you are having pecking problems!

 

we still have pecking problems, although its not as bad as it was. We were using Ukadex, but have deceided to stop all "management" of the problem for a while to see if they sort themselves out. The only way we could stop them was to completely spray all the birds every 3 days. We both stank, the birds stank, the garden stank, wouldn't mind if it had solved the problem longer term but it didnt. As soon as the Ukadex sore off, when we tried to cut it down, they started again

sorry to hijack your thread but

has any one noticed if it seemed to make the girls off colour for a day??

[Dolly]

Thanks so much for your replies. We'll keep going and see how things are in a couple of weeks - may return to the beak ring / bumper bit if no progress...

 

Miffy - about them being off colour, I havent noticed anything yet but will report back if I see any changes or adverse affects.

[Doris 12]

We resorted to Ukadex back in December as we had a bad pecking problem by one girl in particular. My goodness that stuff really stinks! It did seem to send our girls off colour for a few days and didn't really do the trick, after a few more weeks and our bullied girl looking almost ready for the oven, we decided to send Doreen(the pecker) off to a friend who has a farm and a flock of 20 girls. She did start to peck at her new friends at first, but there were enough of them to retaliate and she stopped, she is very happy there (best of friends with the Cockerel- hussy)

I have read on other threads that Tea Tree oil can do the trick, could be worth a try, certainly will smell nicer!