Feathers loss.

I posted a little while back about our hens losing their feathers at the base of their tails on their backs. It was mentioned that it is either rooster damage or nutrition. We only have 1 rooster and watching him he doesn't mate with the hens a lot and some of the hens I haven't even seen him mate with. When I posted a month or more ago there has become more hens with the missing feathers in the same place. We have 8 of 14 hens with the missing feathers now when it was only 3 or 4 when I posted. I don't know if it is rooster damage or not. Incase it was nutrition We also added more food, we are giving them cat food daily and calcium all the time. It doesn't look like bugs either, I can't see any on them. There is also a hen who lost all her chest feathers about the same time and they still haven't come back. She has the grey fluffy downy feathers there, but she is a speckled Sussex.

Will the feathers grow back on the chickens all the time or do they only grow back during molting time? What else should I do for the feather loss and prevention?

Thanks.

fishmanwill said:

I posted a little while back about our hens losing their feathers at the base of their tails on their backs. It was mentioned that it is either rooster damage or nutrition. We only have 1 rooster and watching him he doesn't mate with the hens a lot and some of the hens I haven't even seen him mate with. When I posted a month or more ago there has become more hens with the missing feathers in the same place. We have 8 of 14 hens with the missing feathers now when it was only 3 or 4 when I posted. I don't know if it is rooster damage or not. Incase it was nutrition We also added more food, we are giving them cat food daily and calcium all the time. It doesn't look like bugs either, I can't see any on them. There is also a hen who lost all her chest feathers about the same time and they still haven't come back. She has the grey fluffy downy feathers there, but she is a speckled Sussex.

Will the feathers grow back on the chickens all the time or do they only grow back during molting time? What else should I do for the feather loss and prevention?

Thanks.

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The base of the tail is a place other hens gravitate to for picking/pecking hens that they are not fond of, in their personal space or out of turn at feeders. Watch your flock for a couple hours and see if you find higher ranking or more aggressive hens pecking that spot on those hens. I have noticed this in my own flock and intend to change flock dynamics to weed it out.

Thank you for the information. I will watch them. I have noticed a couple of aggressive hens before.

How do you change the flock dynamics? Get rid of hens?

What about the feathers growing back? Only during molt?

What about the hens chest feathers?

Thanks