bald chicken butts help

My chickens are molting right now so I hope this is part of that but I thought I would pass it by those more knowledgable than me.
I have 10 chickens, 4 have really bald butts. They look really
really dumb. Yes, there is also a cat in this picture. They are eating left overs and the cat wanted some, too. Does this look like molting or something else?

Looks like either molting or roo action.

A few of mine have bald butts. Their feathers are just starting to grow back in.

Have your checked for mites carefully!

leochickenmama said:

Looks like either molting or roo action.

A few of mine have bald butts. Their feathers are just starting to grow back in.

Click to expand...

We don't have a roo so hopefully it is molting. I am off to google chicken mites now. ICKY!

I googled how to check for mites/lice and went to my coop just now with a flashlight and inspected chicken hineys. They were impressed! I didn't find any bugs, eggs or anything. I wiped under their roosts with a white rag like was stated and didn't find any blood. My chickens are covered in a downy new feather and their bald butts have new feather stumps growing in. I even plucked a feather and inspected the base. Nothing....whew! Must be molting. I am happy!

Molting starts at the head or neck end. Bare bottoms are typical of feather picking. There are some threads in the FAQ section on this. The common causes are too little space, boredom, and too little protein. Also, over time it becomes a habit not matter the other conditions. Sometimes in giving a lot of treats or table scraps, their diet ends up low in protein.

Did you figure out what this is? I have the same balding with 4 out of 6 hens, 9 months old. I don't have a roo. They are fed organic egg layer pellets, oyster shell, and veggie scraps( usually in a hanging ball, sunflower meats with yogurt or cottage cheese, all organic. I brought one hen into ICU (intensive chicken unit) because it looked like she was developing some raw spots and I was afraid the others would pick at her thinking it was blood. She loved her warm bath and didn't notice hydrogen peroxide and I put tiny bits of neosporin on the raw spots. I cleaned their coop twice, fresh bedding, didn't find mites and took 2 of them to the vet and she didn't find any either and commented on how lovely their feathers and health in general seemed to be, and she ran a fecal sample for worms and it was fine... so in other words, an expensive shrug about what it is. They have a sandbox with play sand and DE and I sprinkled a small amount of DE under fresh bedding ( I used to use aspen shavings, but the vet suggested I switch to pine to see). I haven't seen them pecking each other, but I have put a drop of oregano oil at the base of all of their tails to help discourage it. Our weather has been 62 one day and 10 the next and lots of rain. They are all eating and drinking. I added a teaspoon of vinegar to their water and couple drops of garlic oil on their scraps. They have one tiny 7watt red bulb night light with a cover in their coop... I'm afraid of night predators and was told this might ward them off. I still get 2-3 eggs/day.

Sounds like you're doing everything right... how much room do you have? Sometimes plucking is from too many birds and not enough room. They love feathers as their is alot of protein in them.

As far as the night light, good idea for the chickens, but that will not deter predators. Having a predator proof coop is the only way to keep them safe at night.
They sound quite spoiled.

I think this has been happening from time immemorial because my 95 year old mother in law has had the same problem back when she raised chickens (she doesn't know why but I plan to gather some info this weekend...time, place, details) It seems to me that unless one has a camera in the chicken coop we cannot see why this is happening. If there are no parasite problems then perhaps other chickens are the culprit.
I read somewhere where to try tea tree oil because the other chickens detest that, but I don't want to irritate the area. The afflicted girl isn't even the lowest on the pecking order so this make me even more curious. At least she is functioning normally...laying eggs regularly, eating well, normal energy level...the thing to do is observe and monitor. I can imagine that it is quite stifling for the hens to be cooped up (pun intended) for long periods of time...when it is too cold to let them out. I wonder if chickens that can range every day all year long probably don't have this problem???

My White Leghorn chickens are the only chickens out of 27 that have the same problem with a bald rump and have lived with it for several months now. They aren't overcrowded and didn't have a roo when it started so I am thinking boredom. They get to free range some but are cooped most of the time. They get 16% protein All Grain feed as well as Oyster shell calcium and scraps. We have pine shavings that are cleaned every couple of days. I haven't ever caught them picking but I knew it wasn't molting since it has lasted a long time. Doesn't seem to hurt them any. They just look funny and have eaned the nickname "Bald Butt Chickens"!