Bare Butts

[MamaBear0128]

Hi Everyone,

I need some help. I am not good with all the fancy chicken terms, so I hope I am clear enough.


I thought my hens were in their molting season but I'm not so sure.
I live in Sunny South Florida. It's been a bit rainy but not horrible yet and no flooding.
They are just a little over a year old.
They are all Reds.
They have always been healthy, active, funny and full of themselves with beautiful feathers and great shiny color.
Nothing about their personality or eating habits have changed.
There butts are clean.
I keep them well fed and watered daily.
I make a homemade treat of spices and oats with pumpkin seeds, raisins and cranberries which they go crazy over.
Every few weeks, they get water with 2 teaspoons of apple cider vinegar, a crushed garlic glove and black strap molasses.
The food and water routine has been in been in place for 6 months or more.
They are caged with plenty of room.
They have a large hutch for nights.
They have sun and they have shade.
They are let out every day to do their thing.
They only squabble amongst themselves a little bit. No real picking....unless someone has a pumpkin seed.

I think I covered all the bases........that being said,

4 out of my 8 hens have bare butts.
Color is from pale pinkish to red.
Their butts are clean.
No diarrhea.
No mites or lice that I can see.
Sometimes their butts look swollen but others it doesn't.
They have lost their fluff and feathers all the way up around the vent.
They have lost feathers just above their tail feathers but actual tail feathers are intact.
They are all laying beautiful medium to large brown eggs with exception to one. One of them is laying an almost white egg with tiny bumps all over it. Feels like the bumps on sandpaper. I'm not sure who is laying it.

Can someone please give me some ideas? Is this just the molt? Should I treat with a broad spectrum antibiotic or something for parasites?

Thanks to anyone who can help me...

 

[limited25]

Watch to see if there is any feather picking in your flock.

 

[MamaBear0128]

I've been watching and haven't seen this. Thank you for the reply

 

[GretaGarboFirst]

Hello, It sounds to me that your chickens have a wonderful home and lifestyle.

2 of my 5 chickens are also "bare butt" chickens. I struggled with this for a year. I did do a worming procedure just to eliminate that possibility.
If my chickens are free ranging a lot I notice the problem seems to "improve" somewhat. What I have come to realize is that some of my chickens, although not brooding, spend a lot of time sitting on the eggs and moving them around ( and around). That is what I have concluded.

For me, not a health problem in the least. I get more concerned that I will look like a inadequate chicken owner (L0L).

MY guess is that your girls are fine. Enjoy them....with their little imperfections,

 

[GretaGarboFirst]

Oh, one more thing. The Chicken Chick website has some pictures of irregular eggs and their potential causes.

 

[ChicKat]

I agree that your chickens have an ideal life. Yesterday I happened upon this slide show when I was researching something:

http://extension.psu.edu/animals/po...rogram/external-internal-parasites-of-poultry

Have you thought about doing a dusting - with something like DE -- do they have a good dust bath. Is their chicken house some place you could also dust with DE or pryrethrin? Do they have access to a nice dust bath? I'm actually going to put some soil sulfer in the dust baths my chickens use after seeing this slide-show.

Hope that you will find out what it is and that you get them back to fluffy and post what it is that worked for you!

 

[MamaBear0128]

Thank you. I feel better knowing that I'm doing everything right. I also did a worm treatment. They've also all been dusted. There living quarters have been dusted. So the only thing left would be to treat with an antibiotic. After that, I'll just call them bare butts! hehehe

 

[MamaBear0128]

I usually do a DE dusting once a month in all of their living quarters. This time I did the 7 Dust while they were out doing their normal thing.....getting into everything they can find. I must have made my one broody girl made when I stole her eggs. She pranced over to the egg bucket and promptly planted herself on top.

 

[ChicKat]

I usually do a DE dusting once a month in all of their living quarters. This time I did the 7 Dust while they were out doing their normal thing.....getting into everything they can find. I must have made my one broody girl made when I stole her eggs. She pranced over to the egg bucket and promptly planted herself on top.

That is so cute! what a determined little chicken! I love envisioning that little performance.

 

[AustralorpsAU]

Hi. The rough parts on your egg could be calcium deposits. One of my chooks does it too!