How to Make a Chicken Saddle - hens missing feathers!

Poor girls. We show how to make a chicken saddle after we figured out why some hens are missing back and neck feathers. Wish we had known this was going to happen! Now we can be prepared.
#howtomakeachickensaddle #hensmissingfeathers #chickensaddle
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ABOUT OUR SUFFICIENT LIFE
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We live on 8 acres in rural Iowa and have what feels like the perfect place to become less dependent on buying things in stores and the electric company. Dan and I are in our mid-50s and we are gearing up to retire early and make a self-sufficient living right here. Our goal is not just to survive, but thrive and we want to take you along with us on our homesteading journey. On our channel you will find videos on building things, recipes, canning, deep winter greenhouses, chickens and much more - anything we are doing to build our homestead! Subscribing to our channel, liking this video, and commenting below will help us to grow our channel and keep producing content.
Karyn has been a farm girl, teacher, software instructor, hospital office worker and a general nerd. She shares the recipes, kitchen and home tips, and works the garden.
Dan grew up in the Appalachian mountains of Tennessee. He has been a soldier, assembly line worker, farmer, and a sign maker. He works on improving the property, building things, and fixing things.
We post a new video every Sunday - sometimes more during the week. Looking forward to seeing you around!

[@silvanabaralha8665]

I use jeans for the back and just some more or less neutral colours for the top - some people said that reds and pinks are not a good choice because of the similarity with blood, which will draw attention from the other hens and then some pecking. Also, I add some "decorative" stitching to the sides ( which is actually just a stitched line covering the apron from one side to the other, following its shape) to give more structure to the whole thing at its ends, making it stiffer.

[@OurSufficientLife]

These are great ideas! I actually started using jeans material also. I did both layers with the jeans to make it more stiff so it will stay in place. Looks like we had same idea 😊 someone else had made a comment about the color too! I agree.. so I threw out the cuteness factor and went plain. 😅 learning as we go! 🐓

[@KatBurnsKASHKA]

It looks cute. Warning - don't use red fabric. The chickens will peck, thinking it's blood. you can see they immediately started pecking her. Hope the hens get their feathers back sooN!

[@OurSufficientLife]

Thanks Kat! Was wondering if it was the flowers printed on the saddle but this makes more sense. They aren't pecking at it now but will not make more red ones. 👍

[@nanette7fl]

Very nice and easy saddle! I'm going to use fabric that is either plain or strips that way the other birds won't think she has bugs on her back.

[@OurSufficientLife]

That is great, Nanette! After this the ones I made were plain colors - blue and black denim. I found by using denim there isn't a need for the interfacing. Hope they turn out well for you!

[@janisnelson581]

Suggestion, use fabric that would blend in with the feathers so the other chicken won't pick on the chicken that's warning the saddle. And maybe use 1/4" elastic.

[@lindamaling7252]

Great video. I’m sure my girls will love it!

[@PatC.]

Thanks for sharing the great pattern. I would suggest not using material that is colored red and pink because it triggers the others to peck it since it looks like raw flesh and blood. Also... I saw a video that said supplementing with dry cat food will add extra protein to speed up the feathers growing back.

[@OurSufficientLife]

Yep I found that out about the color. Make from old denim jeans now. Interesting about the cat food! I hadn't heard of that and looking forward to trying it if we are in that situation again. Thanks for your thoughts! 😊

[@lynnbellamy2895]

I read to not use pink or red fabric when making these as other chickens relate these colors to meat.

[@OurSufficientLife]

Yes I found that out - switched to making out of denim instead!

[@lynnbellamy2895]

On a smiling face note... Camouflage material makes hens harder for you to find. My granddaughter spent several hours trying to find her hen after I made one from that type of fabric design. 😂😂

[@OurSufficientLife]

🤣🤣🤣 Love it!

[@theMatchless8]

Hi! A great one! Can't find pattern! Not good in english... Maybe send files to me? If posibl - I will give e-mail! Thank you! 😊

[@OurSufficientLife]

Hello! You just need to sign up for our email list at the link in the description and you should be able to download many free items! 😊

[@carolineaguilar7921]

Nice chicken aprons but u should really try and match-up the color of your apron to your chickens, this helps because the aprons blend in to the chickens feathers. And that way the rooster will not attack her. (them) he sees the apron as something trying to hurt his girls. 👋

[@OurSufficientLife]

Thanks, Caroline! I was going for cute.. did not realize the consequences. 😬 The subsequent ones I made are plain black denim for the Jerseys and some other plain denim ones. Whoever said chickens were easy ... not really. 😂 We learn something new all the time.

[@carolineaguilar7921]

Good I'm glad to hear. You'll see the difference in the rooster. I make mine to match my chickens. And it goes well .

[@lindakilo871]

I seen another video where she says don't use red the chickens will think it is flesh that's why they are picking her

[@OurSufficientLife]

Yep I figured that out after I made it. 😆 learning every day! Thanks so much for your comment Linda. 🐓

[@d.a.tsun5104]

How long does it take for a healthy hen to regrow her feather back? I have 2 hens that got bald back from dog attack last week. One of them has broken wing so I bandaged her to stabilize the wing for better healing. The bandage covers her back so she doesn't need saddle at this time - I read it'll take at least 2 weeks for broken wing to recover. For the other one, I made her a vest from an old cotton yoga pants. The fabric is medium thick (thicker than t-shirt) cotton jersey so it has a bit stretch to it and not hot since I'm in CA and it's already above 90 during the day.

[@OurSufficientLife]

D.A. Tsun510, so sorry to hear about your hens! That must have been stressful, and not just for the hens. Unfortunately, I read that it takes about 4 months for feathers to grow back in. That seems like forever ! How are the hens doing now?

[@d.a.tsun5104]

@@OurSufficientLife As it happens, my husband and I just finished grooming the hens a few minutes ago. We originally had 6, 4 of them got injured from the dog attack (dogs from a few houses away from ours and we live in acreage). One succumbed from the injuries the following day. So now we are left with 5. The one with the broken wing is now fully recovered apart from the missing back feathers and crooked wings. She the leader hen, very tough - didn't know that until now since we got her along with 3 others as full grown hen. We changed the bandage a few days ago but she pecked the new one off so we just let her do whatever she wants. Although the broken wing is now crooked, she still can fly up the roost at night. The other hen is still wearing the vest. I cut the piece in front of her chest so now it really looks like a sleeveless vest bikers wear except it's not leather. LOL. We also just washed the under...sorry, the butt feathers of the 3rd hen and she's really mad at us right now. Another hen was limping from the attack, we thought she had broken leg but she's jumping all over when we confined her and the 2 other injured hens in our guest bathroom. She was one of the youngest (the first youngest hen was the one that died). Since she couldn't stay still, we couldn't splint her leg but her wounds were surface wounds and she ate and drunk well so we let her back in the coop and watched her a few days and her limping was less and less so she might only be sprained or hurt from the wound on her thigh. She's also back to her usual cheerful way. At this time, we installed a wire fence around the coop area. The fence was already there before when we trained them to know their house and the surrounding. But we only opened a 1/3 of the roll of the wire. Now we expand that run so they have more room even though not as much as when they were free ranging. Just for now, so they're safe when we're not around to watch them. Next weekend, we're going to let them free range again as we usually work outside during the weekend. Trying to feed them eggs since I read that's the natural food with the highest protein content by far (93%), but they only pecked a little bit and went back to their old food. Sorry for the long story and thank you for responding.

[@OurSufficientLife]

@@d.a.tsun5104 wow.. that's quite an ordeal you have gone through. The hens are lucky to have good parents! Sure hope the wing heals. Poor things. Thank goodness they seem in the mend.. sorry for your loss of the one. We can't let ours free range. I wish we could! Too many hawks and other predators where we are. Thank you for the update! 😀

[@bakon4u]

When she molts maybe ?

[@magaliepoulin222]

How much time do you let her the saddle ? Until all the feathers grow up again ? Always ? Thanks

[@OurSufficientLife]

Hi Magalie! At least until the feathers grow back, but probably should keep the saddle on her to prevent it from happening again if in with the same roosters. We decided recently to just have hens, as it was too hard on the feathers of some of our girls and winter is coming. They need their feathers! 🐓 🐔 🐓 🐔

[@conniestiles9083]

Will a saddle prevent the hen from flying over a fence? Thanks!

[@OurSufficientLife]

I don't think so, Connie - it tucks under their wing. I think to stop them from flying over you would have to clip one of their wings a bit. I've never done it, but I know that keeps them from flying!

[@silvanabaralha8665]

No, they still fly...

[@twilabarnd6857]

Can I put on in the winter and how can I keep it dry? 12/14/23

[@OurSufficientLife]

You could use in winter, but keeping it dry would really depend on what kind of weather and how much shelter they have. Ours are in large covered runs so it would work for us, but I wouldn't probably put these on in winter if our chickens were free range. Keeping them dry is so important in the cold weather. Thanks for your comment! 😊

[@RoseHilkemeyer-jc9sp]

What about when they dust?

[@silvanabaralha8665]

they dust exactly the same, and the dust gets under the apron. One of my hens was viciously attacked by my 3 dogs ( she jumped over the fence to the side they usually free range, but when the dogs are locked inside with me) and she lost part of the saddle skin ( the bone was showing). I had her separated in a cage while treating the wound, and now she is out with the rest of the flock, but with a saddle. She is always dusting and the dust covers the entire part that was stripped from her, and I have to clean it properly every day to apply some skin regenerating cream ( omnimatrix). The apron will stay put if you use some heavy fabric ( like jeans) on the bottom, and then reinforce the ends of the apron with some "decorative" stitch than can just be a regular line all around the saddle to stiffen its ends...