Hens with Missing Feathers

[lmadeline146]

This is my flock’s first fall/winter, and they started molting a month or two ago. Some hens lost lots of feathers, but now they’re back to laying 9/9 eggs a day. I noticed a few of my hens with missing patches of feathers on their lower back/tail areas and chests. They’re also pretty muddy ( i’m working on getting them a dust bath) Is this molting or are my rooster’s injuring them? The rooster’s have started to squabble a bit for dominance, but nothing serious yet. (First time owning chickens)

 

[John Deere Boy]

This is my flock’s first fall/winter, and they started molting a month or two ago. Some hens lost lots of feathers, but now they’re back to laying 9/9 eggs a day. I noticed a few of my hens with missing patches of feathers on their lower back/tail areas and chests. They’re also pretty muddy ( i’m working on getting them a dust bath) Is this molting or are my rooster’s injuring them? The rooster’s have started to squabble a bit for dominance, but nothing serious yet. (First time owning chickens)

I’ve had a hen loose feathers back towards the tail just like your hens. I do have a rooster which could have caused the missing feathers. In my situation the feathers grew back after some time.

 

[Mrs. K]

Rooster damage will be on the sides, and on the back. It tends to bother people more than chickens.

BUT... you say 9/9 so I am assuming that you have 9 pullets, and you use the plural for cockerels... how many boys do you have? How much space do you have? Do you have a plan B set up and ready to go, to separate the boys if and when needed? As we head into spring, the hormones will surge. The chance of your roosters not working either with each other, with the hens or with people will also surge.

As AArt says, roosters are where the romance of keeping chickens meets reality. Always have a plan B, and have it ready to go. They don't call it cockfighting for nothing and they can go from getting along just fine to a bloody mess.

A lot of inexperienced chicken keeps vastly underestimate the violence of a cockerel.

Mrs K