wierd bump, protrusion, ingrown feather... actually preening gland - Page 2

Yep, and it's fun watching them use it and grooming themselves....dang, they have the most amazing dexterity of the neck!

I remember when my DH and I first noticed this on our chickens and were like "WTH??!", but we knew it was probably no coincidence that they all had it and rubbed it while preening.  Once we looked it up it was like "Huh, handy!"  Once they had fully feathered out, it always looked like they were opening a lid of feathers on their back when they'd expose it during their preening.  To this day we still jokingly refer to it as "opening the trunk".

I also came here looking for info about impacted feathers. Thanks for this post - you saved my hen some unnecessary treatment/torment. 

Thank you so much I was so wred!But now I know what it is I am so happy my 3 chickens are HAPPY!!

THANK YOU! I was just about to ask if anyone would know what the "projection" on my girls' back was! :-) 

Yes, thanks for posting this.  I was beside my self trying to figure it out. One of my other chickens has bumble foot pretty bad and we are dealing with that, and I really didn't want to deal with something else. Thanks for taking the stress out of it for me.

I was dusting my chickens for mites once about a year ago and saw that on my RIR hen. I was all "What the HECK!?"  I got my rooster and looked for it on him and found it, and told my mom. She was concerned they are sick. I said "Well, they were kinda oily, so maybe it's an oil gland or something." I looked it up and sure enough! I may have gotten a little too prideful over that.  Sorry, mom. 

Mmmm.... so I saw this thing on my hen's back and thought it was the problem but obviously NOT.

Why would she be mooching around with her tail draggin on the ground but otherwise fine?