PIcking? Mating? Molting? What am I dealing with here...

Oh, that's plenty of space! So crowding is not the problem.

Some birds just have brittle feathers too.
I wonder if the under the chin thing is from reaching thru the fencing...can they do that anywhere in their run?
My birds do that, but I haven't seen feathers missing from it...I don't think.

Are the ones with missing chin feathers lower birds on the pecking order...maybe someone else is snacking on their feathers?

More protein is a good place to start....meal worms, meat scraps, eggs...until you get more feed.

No, they definitely have plenty of room.
I don't think they can reach through the fence, there's 2x4 fencing, and then chicken wire around the bottom so they really can't get their faces through that I know of.

There's only one missing that patch on the underside of its chin/neck. My black sex link. And as far as I can tell that's the only affected spot on her. That's why I'm so confused. None of them have the same areas really. I'll take a closer look when I go out on Saturday, and see if there is a pattern to it.

I do know that my younger 4 hens out there (they are younger by about 1-2 months) do not have ANY missing feathers. And my older hens pick on them some and chase them around a lot but all 4 of them are in perfect shape. It just seems to be 3 of my Buff Orpington hens that are really looking rough.

I'll adjust the food accordingly once I run out of layer feed. I don't want to waste what I have. In the mean time I will get them some eggs and meal worms.

Thanks for the input. I'm stumped. From what I've read I just can't figure out why they look like they do. I do see my Rooster Buddy mounting my girls a lot and they scream bloody murder but they don't struggle. He's a big boy and he practically swallows a couple of my hens lol

I'll get more pictures and update as I observe a little more.
 

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