Your result is in the amber area of the graph
Your flock is falling into the middle 50% of flocks for feather loss. You should make a plan to continuously improve feather cover within your flock.
1. Ensure your health and welfare plan includes:
- Risk factors identified that put your flock at risk of feather loss. For information on the risk factors and causes of feather loss see FeatherWel.
- Strategies to manage these risk factors both in the short and long term.
Short term
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Long term
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- Introducing more types of enrichment within the house.
- Consider planting natural cover like trees and hedges to encourage birds to range.
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2. Implement actions set out in your health and welfare plan.
It has been proven that the most successful way to improve feather cover is to implement as many strategies to help improve feather cover as possible. The more strategies you put in place the better. See FeatherWel and Feather Cover Guide [pdf, 661 KB] for further ideas.
If making changes whilst the current flock is in place remember to make these gradually to reduce stress.
3. Regularly undertake self-assessment of your flock
Monitoring your flocks’ feather loss can help you spot early warning signs and implement strategies before the problem becomes more serious, and in the long term help to monitor and inform on-going management.
You can now regularly check your flocks’ scores by using the AssureWel Benchmarking Tool to monitor feather loss improvements and compare your scores to those of your fellow producers.
Use the following links to help you monitor feather cover:
4. Get help and support to make improvements
If you have any concerns about feather loss in your flock, or would like further information, please visit our
Advisory Support pages, contact the
AssureWel Welfare Advisors or your vet.