What are Poultry Saddles.

Poultry saddles prevent feather loss on a hens back when a cockerel treads the hens. After a while, you may notice, some of your hens start to lose feathers on their backs where the rooster / cockerel has been treading her. Often, roosters have their favourites and it can be one or two hens that need a poultry saddle but if you have only a few hens or a very active cockerel, you may find most of your hens will need saddles. It is best to fit a saddle as soon as you first start to notice the feather loss, before she becomes bare on her back. The Black Australorp shown on the left is starting to lose feathers, you can see the lighter feathers underneath starting to show just before her tail feathers.

A poultry saddle is a tough piece of material like leather or canvas that fits onto the back of your hen, protecting her from the roosters feet during mating. The saddle is held in place by two straps that fit around the wings. Saddles usually only need to be used during the summer months. During autumn, your birds will be going through a moult, loosing all of their feathers and stopping laying eggs as they re-grow new feathers. During the winter, the roosters are far less active and there is no need to use a poultry saddle.

Without a poultry saddle, hens can get a very sore back and once the feathers have gone, the skin will go red and saddle cuts can even appear from the spurs of the cock bird. If a hen loses her feathers and is sore, you should remove the hen immediately to give her a chance to recover

Fitting a Poultry Saddle.

It is a fairly straight forward job to fit a poultry saddle. The strap can be pulled through to enlarge one side, a wing can be slipped through (as shown in the first photo below) and then the strap can be pulled tight, allowing the second strap to be loosened and the second wing pulled through.

Once you have fitted the saddle, the hen will soon shake herself and re-arrangethe saddle so that it is comfortable. She is now protected a little better. Once the mating season is over and your cockerel is less active, you can remove the poultry saddle until the next season.