Bantam Frizzle Hen Feather Loss

[espers]

Hi all - my bantam frizzle hen went through a broody period and we tried to let her hatch, but unfortunately none of the eggs hatched successfully, even after staying on top of candling and keeping track of things. Shortly after she just kind of gave up but I noticed not long after a MASSIVE amount of her feathers showed up in the chicken run. I don't think she's being bullied by her fellow chickens - my bantam silkie rooster and Easter egger hen - but the extreme feather loss has me very concerned. We also noticed this redness and white bump on her underside and are unsure as to what it is.

For reference, the other two chickens are fine, as far as I can tell there are no mite issues, and my frizzle is still eating and drinking and has a healthy appetite. I did notice some of her feathers are starting to grow back, so I wasn't sure if it was just a real extreme molt. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Debbie292d]

Hi all - my bantam frizzle hen went through a broody period and we tried to let her hatch, but unfortunately none of the eggs hatched successfully, even after staying on top of candling and keeping track of things. Shortly after she just kind of gave up but I noticed not long after a MASSIVE amount of her feathers showed up in the chicken run. I don't think she's being bullied by her fellow chickens - my bantam silkie rooster and Easter egger hen - but the extreme feather loss has me very concerned. We also noticed this redness and white bump on her underside and are unsure as to what it is.

For reference, the other two chickens are fine, as far as I can tell there are no mite issues, and my frizzle is still eating and drinking and has a healthy appetite. I did notice some of her feathers are starting to grow back, so I wasn't sure if it was just a real extreme molt. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

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It's been 3 months since my silkie frizzle molted and she still isn't quite as pretty as she was. Hers was nasty. This redness was there, not sure to this extent, but it subsided. I noticed it was gone in a month, but it might have gone away days or weeks prior and I just didn't notice.

You can see she's still recovering from the molt so it shouldn't be too long.

I did try up the protein for mine, and I'm sure it helped, but still, she's not back to what she was. She'll get there and so will yours.

 

[K0k0shka]

Brooding is very taxing on their bodies because they don't eat a healthy amount during that time, just enough to survive. Molting is also very taxing on their bodies, because it takes a lot of protein to rebuild their lost feathers - that's why they slow down or stop laying during molt, to conserve resources. So letting your hen brood during molting season added two stressors on top of each other, and that might have just been too much for her. Unlike normal chickens, she has a third problematic layer on top of those two - frizzle feathers are defective by their very nature, so frizzle chickens are more prone to feather related problems. So she has three conflating factors going on. Up her protein and make sure she's eating well, and hopefully she'll recover with time. The redness is probably damage to the skin from rubbing on things as she sits. Normally the feathers would protect it, when they are there. To avoid running into this again, don't let your hens brood so late in the season, overlapping brooding with molting. And especially don't let chickens with defective feathers (frizzles, frazzles or silkies) brood while molting.

 

[espers]

Brooding is very taxing on their bodies because they don't eat a healthy amount during that time, just enough to survive. Molting is also very taxing on their bodies, because it takes a lot of protein to rebuild their lost feathers - that's why they slow down or stop laying during molt, to conserve resources. So letting your hen brood during molting season added two stressors on top of each other, and that might have just been too much for her. Unlike normal chickens, she has a third problematic layer on top of those two - frizzle feathers are defective by their very nature, so frizzle chickens are more prone to feather related problems. So she has three conflating factors going on. Up her protein and make sure she's eating well, and hopefully she'll recover with time. The redness is probably damage to the skin from rubbing on things as she sits. Normally the feathers would protect it, when they are there. To avoid running into this again, don't let your hens brood so late in the season, overlapping brooding with molting. And especially don't let chickens with defective feathers (frizzles, frazzles or silkies) brood while molting.

Thank you. I appreciate all of this information so much!