Three of my six chickens have a whitish color on their combs and other red areas of the head. I had to other chickens die, but they didn't seem to have this whitish color on them. The chickens seem to be eating ok and don't seem sick.

-- Brenda Williams (countrymeadows@idmail.com), November 23, 2001

Answers

If it is on their combs, perhaps it is dandruff? Have you tried Head & shoulders?

-- Tressedout (VDAL@HAIRMAIL.COM), November 23, 2001.

How old are your chickens? When they get past the laying stage (older than three years) their combs will get really pale sometimes white looking.Their legs will fade in color also.....When they are active laying hens their combs will be a nice pink reddish color. And sometime s if you live where it is really cold and they don't have good cover the combs will freeze. But in my experience they turn black when that happens.

-- Barbara (vozarbi@sensible-net.com), November 23, 2001.

Could it be a fungus. Don't know without looking. It could just be that they are old and they are not as shiny as they used to be. I have some older chickens with combs like that. My younger one's combs are red and shinyish. Guess that you could put bag balm on them:~)! It might help and it couldn't hurt.

-- Nan (davidl41@ipa.net), November 24, 2001.