bare bellies and skinny chickens

[Annalisa]

A couple of my chickens have bare bellies. It doesn't look plucked, just smooth skin. Is this normal? They sleep on pine shavings. Could this be contributing? Also, I can clearly feel their breast bones when I pick them up. Is this normal? They get plenty to eat between feed, bugs and greens. Besides their free ranging, I feed them a local breeder mix, bake and feed their egg shells back to them, oyster shells and occasional veggie scraps. I can't imagine they're lacking in anything. My neighbors and friends chickens seem to be a little more plump. The Americana especially seems scrony.

 

[NattyK]

My hens pluck out their feathers when they are going to go broody. I don't know why else theywould be bald. How old are your hens? My Americana is naturally more skinny that say, my Laced Wyandotte who is quite chubby. But, have you wormed them? Maybe they have worms from eating something around the yard? That's my only thought, someone else may come along and chime in. Usually when I ge a hen that I know has been wormed but is still poor, I make sure she gets some scrambled eggs and yogurt every day for several days to see if she comes out of it.

 

[Annalisa]

OK. Anyone else?

I will worm them. I wormed them a couple months ago. The ones with the bare bellies are a little over a year old, born last spring. The others that are also skinny are maybe 9 months old. We don't have a roo and the hens are all pretty active so I'm not seeing any signs of broodiness. Laying production has been low as well so I hope I can get to the bottom of this soon. I think we take pretty darn good care of them so it's frustrating to try and figure out what could possibly be going wrong.

 

[crittersitter]

Have you checked them for mites? What is the protein level of their feed? Could be protein deficiancy??

 

[Annalisa]

No mites.

I'll have to call the farmer who mixes my feed. They're on breeder ration with supplimented calcium. The farmer who grows/mixes my feed has an animal nutritionist for a daughter who keeps him utd on nutrient levels for his feed.

 

[Stephers]

One of my girls has had a bare belly since last August thought it was the molt. She has had lots of worms, layer pellets even cat food and still has a bare belly and the coop has been thoroughly cleaned etc. Noticed she wasn't well a month ago: diarrhea and not laying so de-wormed her and she was still not a happy chicken (not eating or moving much). I brought her inside for 3 days and gave her coxoid treatment, made layer pellet porrige with powdered Garlic! now giving them natural antibiotics. She has perked up and is eating etc but is still not laying and still bare bellied. I went in the run today and quite a lot of feathers around, so checked them both and found the other girl is getting a bare belly too. What an earth can it be. I am going to give them another de-worming course and then another coxoid course and I have gotten some super disinfectant to make sure they are not re-infected. Not sure what else I can do really, could it be a fungal infection?. Any suggestions or expertise would be gratefully recieved. Thanks in advance.