NAKED HEN

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two early

two early

In the Brooder
8 Years
Mar 21, 2011
56
3
41
One of my barred rock hens who is about 2.5 years old lost her feathers on her back and head during a molt about 1.5 years ago! She never regrew them! Other than looking awful, she has been a happy hen, laying about 3-4 eggs a week for all that time. Now she is losing more feathers around her neck and has been dropping her eggs from the perch at night. Every once and a while she will lay an egg in the nesting box, some are soft shelled, one had no shell, just a perfect yolk laying atop the other eggs in there.
I have dusted her for parasites, although I haven't seen any on her and the other three hens that she lives with are all ok. I once asked a vet why she never grew back her feathers after her first molt and she thought it had to do with hormones. Now she is losing more feathers. Is she molting again? Is she just getting old and not laying so well anymore? Not sure if there is anything I should be doing for her.
Any suggestions would be appreciated.Thanks y'all
 
That looks like rooster damage or feather picking from other hens. Do you have a rooster? Is she low on the pecking order? Also what food does she eat? Feathers take a lot of protein to grow back
 
Thanks for your response. No roos at this time, although I did have one when we first got her. She eats a soy free organic layer feed from Scratch and Peck Feeds, excellent quality. I did try a bag of feather fixer but nothing changed. I have never seen her being pecked, she is one of only 4 hens in a very large coop/run with 1-2 hours per day of limited free range. I do feel concerned about the quality of her eggs but not sure if that is due to her age or something else going on.
 
I have 3 year old barred rocks that lay 6 out of 7 days. I'm sure genetics can differ within breed so not to say your girl should be same but she's still fairly young. I have one that has a head like yours because her perch mate was picking them out all night long. Took me forever to figure out because it never happened in daylight. As for the soft shells do they get free choice oyster shell? I'm at a loss for anything else to suggest. Hopefully someone else will come on with some more ideas for you.
 
Yes oyster shell is always available. Maybe I'll try to separate her for a while and see if anything grows. Thanks for the response.
 

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