Molting or Rooster business?

Today I noticed one of my silkies (RooBerri, we thought she was a he and named her Roo..then added the Berri, lol), has a couple of bald patches on the back of her head and neck. Before I go on, I will mention, I DID check for lice and mites thoroughly, she is clean. I have only had chickens since may, so I am still learning. Here is a picture:



It is a bit blurry, but there is also another spot lower on her neck. We have 7 bantam chickens, and only one is a rooster, and he is only 6 months old, but I did catch him once trying to do his thing with RooBerri, but she ran away. Maybe she is his lady of choice? I know it is the time of year for molting, and there are a lot of black silkie feathers laying around, bit I noticed some of the feathers are broke off, so I don't think that would happen with molting.

It's ok if these two would have a fertilized egg, because RooBerri is often broody, and I would be curious what the offspring would look like. I will let her hatch an egg in Spring. (I will need to do a lot of reading though, because I have no idea how to oversee that)




He is quite bigger than she is, and my other concern is him hurting her. I know roosters don't have um... "external parts", but do hens get injured from larger roosters because they are bigger and heavier?

Any thoughts and suggestions very much appreciated! Thanks all!

Sara

Anybody?

How old is your hen, if she's over a year she will molt, that looks like the rooster is pulling out her feathers, be careful he doesn't start drawing blood.

Roosters are generally bigger than hens so a bit bigger is okay, if he's too large he could hurt her, not sexually but physically, if he's mating her too much you may have to separate him out. At his age he's a bit too eager to mate.

oldhenlikesdogs said:

How old is your hen, if she's over a year she will molt, that looks like the rooster is pulling out her feathers, be careful he doesn't start drawing blood.

Roosters are generally bigger than hens so a bit bigger is okay, if he's too large he could hurt her, not sexually but physically, if he's mating her too much you may have to separate him out. At his age he's a bit too eager to mate.

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Thanks for the input. I've concluded that she must be molting. I went out to check on her again before dark, and when I picked her up some of her feathers were just falling out. Poor girl, she's about 15 months old. Explains why she hasn't laid an egg in a few weeks too.

That's good news, she will replace all those feathers.